Thursday, August 26, 1999
New world opens for students
Parents, kids face hard facts of bus schedules
BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A new school year began Wednesday for many families, ending the easy-going routines of summer and sending them headlong into the rush of the next nine months.
Classes began Wednesday in districts such as Forest Hills, Sycamore, Mount Healthy and St. Bernard-Elmwood Place. Some districts start later this week and next week. First days of school always are emotional, said Dusty Pittman of Montgomery, as each child steps into a new era.
“I drop each one off, and I feel my heart going,” she said.
She began Wednesday with the sun rising as she headed the Pittman minivan into traffic.
The goal: Drop off her five youngsters at three Sycamore schools before class bells rang.
“I took one to Greene, one to the junior high and three to Symmes Elementary,” she said, waiting outside E.H. Greene Intermediate School about 2:30 p.m. for the afternoon pickup.
“We just moved here, and they've never ridden a bus before. It's a big transition for us, so I promised them a ride the first day.
“Now my stress point is to get from here to the junior high and to Symmes on time again,” she said, laughing.
Diane and Robert MacLachlan of Symmes Township took time off work Wednesday to bring daughter Kate to her first day of afternoon kindergarten at Symmes Elementary.
Kate tugged at her plaid dress, wondered when the other children would arrive and rattled off her newly learned home address.
“We sent one to college this year and have the baby going to kindergarten, so we're into the spectrum,” Mrs. MacLachlan said, smiling even as tears pooled in her eyes.
“Their grandmother came from Chicago. She wanted to see both send-offs.”
Judith Mikita of Montgomery sent one son to Greene Intermediate with his father, who drops him off en route to work — continuing a special-time tradition started last school year.
She walked to the bus stop with her second son for his ride to Maple Dale Elementary.
“It wasn't terribly hectic this morning. I think the children were prepared and excited,” Ms. Mikita said. “We had vowed to make bedtime earlier and wake-up time earlier a couple weeks ago.
“But a couple of family outings and sleep-overs did away with that.”
Wednesday afternoon, Darlene Spearmon, of Blue Ash was “still struggling to get information about busing,” for her son, a Greene fifth-grader.
“Tomorrow — the bus. That's my plan,” she said.
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