Great Weather, New Academy, Teen Leaders

l. Like the weather Monday? It felt like fall—and was perfect for the first day of school! Today will be a repeat, according to the National Weather Service. Look for sunny skies with a high near 88. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 62.

2. Monday was the first day back to school for Kennesaw students, and 800 freshmen at walked into a brand-new building. The Ninth Grade Academy not only relieves overcrowding at NCHS, but also is designed to ease the transition from middle school to high school for ninth-graders. Freshmen will take the majority of core classes exclusively in the new facility and eat lunch in their own state-of-the-art cafeteria.

3. Don't forget the meeting tonight from 6:30 to 8 at the in Adams Park. Mayor Mark Mathews, City Council members and other city officials will be on hand to answer questions from residents and talk about the future of Kennesaw.

4. Check back with Kennesaw Patch later today to see what a group of teenagers did at Monday night's meeting. And, no, they didn't do anything bad.

5. Back-to-school fact: Until the 1930s, most Americans completed only eight years of school. “High school” only became popular during the Great Depression, when job-strapped communities saw benefits to keeping teenagers in class and out of the workforce, where they’d only serve as low-cost competition to adults.