If it wasn’t for the gaily decorated Exedra plaza yesterday, you might never have known that Monday marked the first day of the 2020-2021 school year. With K-12 students all working from home due to the COVID-19 health crisis, there was a strange silence around town on what would normally have been a bustling, busy day.
The Piedmont Education Foundation (PEF) draped the walls of the plaza with purple streamers and balloons, encouraging families to drop in after school for a first day photo.
Ellora Medhekar, Beach 2nd grader, stands in front of the sign 
Sabrina Bell takes a photo of her kids: freshman daughter Breah, sophomore daughter Leah and Beach 5th grader, Aiden 
Alexandra Bertoncello gets a shot of her 1st grader, Scarlet, along with infant Sasha and the girls grandma 
Martin Johnson, Havens 3rd grader, poses while his mom Qi captures the moment 
Piedmont Middle school 8th graders Haylee Cheang and Genevieve Hiller are out to capture the day in photos for the middle school yearbook 
Piedmont Park on the first day of school