Back to school: Teachers at Mastery Schools return to classrooms to prepare for students

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- New teachers within the Mastery School network are setting up classrooms before more than 14,000 student return in just over a week across Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey.

New teachers are pairing up with teachers who have done it before.

It's all part of what they call One Team Day.

"We've never taught together, so this will be cool. This is new," said Nicole Lemme, a new teacher at Mastery High School of Camden.

Lemme and her husband Michael said they moved to the area from Florida to teach at Mastery High School of Camden.

"I know this is a place where our beliefs in student achievement can thrive and also where our beliefs in building community can thrive. We're really excited to do the work," Nicole Lemme said.

The couple is setting up their individual classrooms for the first time, but they're veteran teachers and said it's important to have a good start so they feel connected to their colleagues.

"To see the CEO here actually putting up paper in their classrooms and borders and things like that just really gives you an actual real feel for the organization and their values," said Michael Lemme.

Mastery schools CEO Joel Boyd is also getting settled into the job. He just started last month.

"This is a great time of year. I always look forward to that first day of school, Boyd said.

Boyd said he began his career as a teacher and that he's looking forward to building upon the community within Mastery schools.

"We have about 150 new teachers starting up this year out of our 1,100 teachers across our network," Boyd said. "Really exciting this year, 12 of our new teachers are Mastery graduates, so they themselves were students in our classrooms and now they get to come back and teach our students," Boyd said.

Students return to the classroom on Monday August 21.