Students back in class across Lee County
The 2026-’27 school year for the School District of Lee County kicked off with a bump in student enrollment, 99.9% of its teaching positions filled, and a certified teacher in every classroom.
The doors opened to campuses across the school district Tuesday morning as students filled classes for the first day of school.
“Our staff members who visited schools across the district reported a calm and orderly start to the school day,” District Spokesperson Rob Spicker said. “We hope every student and every family had a positive experience.”
Although the process is typically extremely slow on the first day for parent and school bus drop off, it went smoothly without any major issues Tuesday morning. He said it will continuously get better each day ahead.
“In the afternoon, dismissal just takes time, particularly at the elementary level when so many young students are only experiencing the process for the very first time,” Spicker said. “Traffic backed up around many schools, but none of this is unexpected, and will improve as students learn the process, buses leave the ramp faster, and our community adjusts to school based traffic.”
Patience is a virtue during the first few weeks of school when it comes to pick-up and drop-off lines, as the lines will be slow as students, parents, and staff get used to the proper procedure, Spicker said.
Meanwhile, buses face the potential for delays as drivers learn their routes and manage the traffic, while students get the habit of being in the right place at the right time.
“The longer car lines can also impact the ability of some school buses to get to the ramp to pick students up and start their route, backing the system up,” he said.
The district also holds adding new bus stops and riders for the first couple of weeks, so staff can more accurately judge ridership to make one set of changes instead of daily adjustments.
“By the third or fourth week, students have settled into the routine, and we will see steady improvements through the school year,” Spicker said.
The school district has surpassed its enrollment from the last day of school in June, and several hundred students ahead of where the district was at this time last year.
“Our Student Enrollment team worked through the weekend to process about 200 new enrollments, processed about 200 more yesterday, and close to 150 today. What we don’t know is how many students will actually be in attendance. We will know our true enrollment after the 14th day of school,” Spicker said.
The district strongly recommends that parents enroll their children early for the following school year.
“We will open registration for next year’s kindergarten students in the fall and encourage parents with 4-year-olds to get them into our system then, rather than wait until open enrollment in February and March,” Spicker said. “If you get it done early, then you’re not stressed about the deadline.”
The same advice goes for parents moving to the district or are new to the district.
“The sooner they register, the easier it will be to assign them a school and a bus for the first day of class,” Spicker said. “Students who wait until the very end may not always have a school assignment by the first day and may also not have a bus assignment if they need transportation.”
To reach Meghan Bradbury, please email news@breezenewspapers.com