Buses, Parents, Traffic : New School’s First Day Was One for the Books

On the first day of school at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, Principal Fred Rose scrambled to greet anxious parents with their well-coiffed children in tow.

He shuffled teachers to their classrooms and, it being a hot day, kept plenty of lemonade on hand for the younger pupils.

Starting a new school year--a chaotic affair at best--often means a mountain of tasks for a principal, Rose said Tuesday, as his school became one of many throughout San Diego County to rev up the education process.

A Few Glitches Arose

But opening-day bugs were a bit more complicated at Lake Elementary School, a brand-spanking new school where teachers and administrators had to cope with bus schedules, traffic congestion and other problems from, of all places, temporary shelters.

Lake Elementary School--a new addition to the Vista Unified School District--is not only new, it’s still under construction.

“You see that van over there?” Rose asked as he pointed to a tract of land surrounded by new classrooms, which fortunately have already been built. “That’s full of furniture for the library. The library, however, isn’t here yet.”

Bulldozers plunked right in the middle of school grounds and on-going construction work on Lake Boulevard--the main thoroughfare that leads to the school--created traffic woes as parents and buses dropped off 782 students.

Lake Elementary, expected to cost about $5 million when finished in 1989, was supposed to ease the overcrowding at nearby Santa Fe, Casita and Crest View schools, which have been overwhelmed by Vista’s booming population growth. But enrollment figures at the new school have already exceeded the optimum 750 pupils. Rose said the school could support about 830 students.

“We were about 10 minutes off schedule this morning,” Rose said. “But considering the circumstances, it was amazing how well things went.”

Doing a Job and a Half

Rose certainly had to go beyond the call of duty to keep things under control.

“I was out there playing traffic cop,” said Rose, who halted traffic with one hand, while waving school buses off to children’s homes with the other.

Though students often lament the beginning of the school year, children at Lake Elementary said they were happy that a long, hot, boring summer was behind them, and expressed eagerness to be at the pristine new school equipped with air conditioning.

“The air conditioning in the fourth-grade classrooms at my old school always broke down,” said Stephanie Prenatt, 9.

Stephanie and her fellow fifth-grade classmates groaned momentarily when their new teacher Austin McDaniel, announced that the students would be working on a six-month, 40-page school paper, but then seemed challenged by the project.

“It’s going to be a lot tougher than anything I’ve done before,” said Richard Kandrach, 11, “But I’m looking forward to it.”

Not all students, however, were enchanted by the prospect of academic rigor.

Recess Was Tops

Stephanie Prenatt’s younger brother, John, 7, when asked what he enjoyed most about his first day in the second grade, responded: “I liked recess.”

Others, however, had a tough time on Day 1.

First-grader Jorge Carrizosa, 6, missed his bus ride home. Luckily, he had Alison Owen, as his teacher. “Don’t worry, I’ll drive you home,” Owen said.

The confusion of getting students in and out from the school grounds should ease as parents stop escorting their children to school.

“It’s the first day and everybody wants to come to see the new school,” principal Rose, said. “But that should die down, and more students will either take the bus or walk to school.”

Until then, Rose said Oceanside police officers will help with traffic duty.

Rose ate lunch a little later than usual yesterday, at 4 p.m., and retired to his office, where a statue of Ziggy, the comic figure, perches on his desk.

Written on the ornament is: “Be kind. My friend here is on the verge of a nervous collapse.”