Fifth-grader Molly Douglass was a little sad to see the end of summer, but also glad to be getting back to school. She only wished her bus ride was a little shorter.

On Tuesday, the first day of school, she was on the bus home about 10 minutes longer than usual. To pass the time, she said, she stared out the window and did her homework.

The first couple weeks can mean a little more work at the schools, where staff is adjusting to new students, new classes and new bus routes, according to Peter Lancia, Congin School principal. Lancia said he usually spends more time on the intercom and is a bigger presence in his students’ days at the beginning of the school year.

“They probably hear from me more than they want to at this time of year,” he said.

Getting the kids to their buses in the afternoon is a perfect example. At a couple minutes before the end of school on Tuesday, Lancia was on the intercom telling the kids that they’d be called to their buses in a moment. Lancia said when the school year settles in, he’ll leave that to someone else.

At exactly 2:50 p.m., the first bus was called and kids filed out of their classrooms and down the halls toward the school’s entrance. Of the 350 third-, fourth-and fifth-grade students at Congin School, a handful of kids got rides home from their parents and a couple dozen or so walked home, but most filed onto one of the 11 buses lined up and waiting.

According to Lancia, all the students are dismissed and out of the building in about seven minutes. On Tuesday, it took a couple minutes longer. In the beginning, it’s a little less organized, but the whole process is fairly well organized, according to bus driver Ron Woodhouse. “The kids adjust,” he said. “And I have a pretty good group.”

Some of the kids ran, but most walked to their buses when they got outside,. Once there, they waited in lines to file onto their buses. Lancia and several other educators were there to keep an eye on things and say goodbye to the kids.

Getting students from all parts of the school to their buses so quickly is the biggest challenge of the process, according to Lancia. After that, the bus drivers make sure they have all the kids they’re supposed to drive home that day by checking names and faces against a printout they carry with them.

“The bottom line is, we try to make sure they get on the right bus,” said Lancia.

To ensure that, the drivers’ lists also include where students are to be dropped off each day. In the beginning of the year, parents identify a primary and secondary drop-off point and what days their child is supposed to be dropped at each. If the student asks the driver for a different drop-off point, the driver calls the school to check. It’s up to the parents to let the school know any changes to the schedule.

“The parents are awesome about letting us know,” said Lancia, who added that the bus drivers get to know each of their students well enough to know the schedules. In turn, the kids get to know their driver. “It’s not bus 5 or bus 3, it’s Debbie’s bus,” he said.

Meanwhile, Molly Douglass, along with her brother Ian, a first-grader at Pride’s Corner School, got off outside their home at about 3:40 p.m. They were greeted by their father. Ian Douglass said the ride was long, but fun because he got play a friend’s Gameboy on the way home.

Wes Douglass said he wasn’t too worried that his kids were a little late on Tuesday, because the buses usually run close to schedule.

“It’s the beginning of the school year,” he said, resignedly.

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