School opens with small increase in student body --

8/5/2009 -

PHOTO BY DAMON HOWELL Superintendent Mike Ballew said 4,350 students showed up Tuesday for the first day of school, many riding one of the system’s more than 60 buses. Ballew said enrollment increased by 40 students from the first day last year. “We got off to a good start Tuesday morning,” Ballew said. “Everything went smoothly. We did have some initial traffic backup because we had so many parents dropping students off for the first day. Traffic on the first day is always magnified but our operations personnel and principals will be looking at traffic problems along with city officials to see if we can improve anything.”