They’re Baaack!

Armed with summer tans, new, stocked backpacks, the best footwear fashions of their generation and big smiles, kids – over 1.2 million of them – made their way back to school.
The first day of classes, Thursday, September 8, also marked the arrival of six new schools in Queens which will bring some relief to the omnipresent problem of overcrowded classrooms.
The only truly new school — read that “more seats” — is the Academy of the City Charter School in Long Island City. The other five schools are replacements operating out of buildings occupied by struggling schools the city has targeted for phasing out.
Absent was the confusion of past years — school buses picked up kids at the usual corners and took them back again after 3 p.m. Many school safety issues have been resolved by local politicians working with Community Boards and parents organizations to ensure the student body is safe on the way to and from and on school grounds. We remind those of our readers without children that they must readjust the way they operate their motor vehicles near our borough’s school buildings too. You must reduce your speed and focus on the road and sidewalks especially if children are present.
Do not attempt to pass school buses that are stopped with flashing lights.
Follow the directions of the school crossing guards whenever they are present.
Have patience and do not blow your horns in and around schools while they are in session.
If children walk home from school past your house be sure to take an extra look or two as you back slowly out of your driveways.
Parents with children should make an extra effort to get involved with the PTAs at their kids’ schools. They should not just pull up, drop their children off in the middle of the street and drive away. Park your car legally and walk you child to school, especially in the rain.
Parents should search their children’s backpacks for letters, flyers, notes, announcements, surveys and the like from school officials.
We want to remind high school coaches to be sure to contact our Sports Editor Steve Mosco at smosco@queenscourier.com so we can cover your team and players. You can call him at 718-224-5863, Ext 225.
Principals and senior administrators please note that we plan to continue saluting our borough’s “Best and the Brightest” — our valedictorians and salutatorians — again this year in June. We will be reaching out to you for their names and photographs beginning in January 2012.