More than 5,400 students will flood into Oak Harbor schools next week for the first day of school.

School begins Thursday, Sept. 10, and buses will be back on the streets and the yellow lights will be flashing once again to mark the 20 mile per hour school zones.

“Once school starts there will be a lot of congestion before and after school. We’re asking people to be cautious,” Superintendent Rick Schulte said.

Oak Harbor High School will open its newly renovated science and math wing as part of the $69 million building program. Students will get their first look at the expanded labs and classrooms.

“I think the students will be thrilled. The hallways are bright and airy, the intersections are wide and there’s a lot of natural light and space,” Schulte said.

The school’s main building (A-wing) will be shut down this year for full renovation. The cafeteria and music rooms will continue to be used in the main building until the new Student Union building is opened in late October.

Schulte said the figures for elementary and middle schools show enrollment appears to be on target. The high school enrollment will not be known with any accuracy until the second week of school.

For the past two weeks, teachers were busy training to prepare for some of the changes in testing and curriculum. Workshops were held in the Oak Harbor School District office for the new math and reading textbooks and a new online assessment tool, among others.

“Staff development is happening all day, every day,” Schulte said at last Monday’s school board meeting.

There were about 10 new teachers at the staff orientation, a significant change from the 40 to 50 new teachers in previous years. However, Schulte said the hires are rare in Washington, when many districts are laying off employees.

“Oak Harbor’s is one of the few, if only, districts that did not make layoffs,” Schulte said, who credits two years of careful planning.

This year, Broad View and Oak Harbor elementary schools will grow in size, while Olympic View and Crescent Harbor elementary schools will shrink.

Broad View and Oak Harbor will receive 165 transfers this year, as part of the mandate by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It requires that parents be allowed to transfer their students to schools that met federal academic goals for standardized tests.

Although the schools will be larger, overall class sizes are not expected to increase. Two new classes are being added to accommodate the demand at Broad View Elementary and four new classes will be added to Oak Harbor Elementary.

Before the start of school, Oak Harbor High School seniors have already held their first activity on Tuesday. They painted some of the campus rocks purple and gold; the school colors.

“Everyone is gearing up for back to school,” high school student Jordan Otruba said at a school board meeting. “The Link Crew is busy helping incoming freshman.”

Otruba added that he’s looking forward to the first football game at Wildcat Stadium on Sept. 11.

Summer ends for Coupeville students

Summer vacation comes to an end soon on Central Whidbey, with school starting Tuesday, Sept. 8.

So far, there are only rough estimates for enrollment figures but school employees plan to do a count on the first day.

“We’ve found in the past we have kids enrolling in the summer and up to the last minute and we have requests coming in by fax and mail,” administrative assistant Janet Wodjenski said.

“I truly haven’t seen any estimates so far that I could count on.”

There are few changes this year, Wodjenski added, mostly some shuffling of staff positions due to people leaving. Staff are eager to begin the upcoming school year.

Wodjenksi encourages people to come to the community clean-up for the school grounds today, Sept. 5, from 9 a.m. to noon.