It was the first day of school for Harrisonburg students and for Dr. Scott Kizner, Harrisonburg's new superintendent.

With the new year and new job, Kizner says he has some new goals for the schools, like getting the community involved in education.

"There's a lot of teachers that are very knowledgeable that might not be in our classrooms," says Kizner.

He wants to expand a program to the middle school that allows students to spend time at businesses, and parent Mary Jo Heckman supports the idea wholeheartedly.

"Getting them to have a clue about what it is that they need to do to get into certain careers, so that perhaps, they'll be a little bit more motivated in school," says Heckman.

She has a son who is a junior and says exposing him to learning outside of the classroom could enhance his performance in the classroom.

"Just the fact that they might really connect what's going on in school to what might be happening for them in their future is exciting to me," comments Heckman.

Kizner also wants the schools to place a renewed emphasis on the arts and foreign language.

"I think those are areas that probably in the last ten years in education have suffered a little bit because of the standards movement," adds Kizner.

He says encouraging those programs will remind kids of the joy of learning, but Kizner says he wants kids to make progress most of all and expects the community to help.

"I believe very much that the superintendent and all of us have to be accountable for goals that we set, so we can measure it each year to make sure we're making progress," says Kizner.