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DOWAGIAC — After a summer away, students from across the area returned to school this week for the 2024-2025 school year.

In Dowagiac, Dowagiac Union Schools students have jumped into the new year ready to learn. First-year Superintendent Greg Blomgren began the first day of school at the bus garage seeing the drivers off. While there were a few transportation issues on the first day, Blomgren said that parents responded well as the district aims to be more transparent. 

“We know how important a role that transportation and our bus drivers play,” he said. “They appreciated hearing that from us but I think you kind of expect those little hiccups on the first day and we’re feeling good about where things are at.”

Blomgren then went to visit the high school, where the building was teeming with life once again. 

“I got to see the buzz at the high school with all the kids pulling in,” he said. “I was able to meet and greet the administrative team and the teachers who were passing out schedules. It looked great.”

After that, Blomgren stopped by Dowagiac Middle School, where he helped students open their lockers.

“It’s always a big deal for the middle school kids, just trying to figure out how to work that combination and make sure that locker will open,” he said. “We were practicing some of those and I even got to help a handful of kids over there and remembered how that worked. I haven’t lost it, so that was kind of fun.”

Blomgren said he rounded out the school day by visiting the district’s elementary schools and thanked his admin team and staff for their guidance.

“I feel very fortunate. It’s been nice to work with such an experienced, veteran, knowledgeable group of leaders who make everybody look really, really good,” he said. “I appreciated everything they did in preparation for the first day and the reason we had such a successful day was because of the leaders that we had in the district… I’m just here to support them and I’m going to try to help them out as best I can, but I feel strongly about the people that we have in our district that are working for us and leading our buildings and our kids.

“I’m going to continue to try to do that and be that support person for them and I understand that the responsibility falls on me if something happens and that I’ll work with the admin team and the directors to try to fix whatever it happens to be.”

One of Blomgren’s goals as superintendent is to not reinvent the district but to hone in on the points of pride in the district. He noted that the district was able to reach contract agreements with both the teacher’s union and DUESPA.

“It’s the culture. It’s the communication, it’s our vision of what we hope to accomplish here together,” he said. “It’s not me telling people what to do, but to utilize everybody’s experience and what they do best and their skill set and to drive the district forward. We’re changing the culture, rebuilding trust and confidence in who we are and what we do and why we’re here and I think that’s slowly starting to take shape.”