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STEPHEN HEGARTYSome are late, and there's a little confusion. But officials say it's just another opening day.
The first call of the day came in to the bus system's Help Desk at 6:54 a.m.
"Okay, let me see which bus goes to Dixie (Hollins High School)," said clerk specialist Leslie Cain, who scanned her computer as she punched in the student's name and address.
"That stop is at 6:58," Cain said. She peeked at the time: 6:55 a.m. "If you can run real fast, you could make it."
Cain had no time to wonder why a parent would wait so long to check on her son's bus stop. Or how fast the kid could run.
She had opened the floodgates. The phones were going crazy.
The first day of school choice posed the biggest potential challenge to Pinellas County's school transportation system in decades. In many ways, the fortunes of the new system was riding squarely on big yellow buses.
So how did it go?
Some buses were an hour late. Phone lines were jammed. A few kids got on the wrong buses. Others got off at the wrong stops.
But all of the students eventually made it to their schools.
In other words, it was much like any other opening day.
"What we're seeing is a typical first day," said superintendent Howard Hinesley. "The first day is always a little crazy."
For many, the first day started much too early.
About 6:50 a.m., 9-year-old Tyler Funk sat quietly in his dad's Volvo at the Lake Tarpon Learning Center off U.S. 19. Bus number 14 would arrive momentarily to take him to Cypress Wood Elementary in East Lake.
Tyler barely managed a nod when asked whether he was sleepy. He was the only student at the stop. His hand gripped his plastic Wal-Mart bag filled with a box of Kleenex paper towels and glass cleaner, while his dad talked about the long distance from their home to the bus stop.
"He could never come here by himself," said Tim Funk, looking out at the bustling morning traffic on U.S. 19 N.
Some students got a later start than they expected. Bus route 535 got to Madeira Beach Middle School about an hour late.
The trip started simply enough. In a light drizzle, driver Cheryl Holmes pulled up to a wooden house with a lighted porch, and out stepped Tom Woodhams and Lori Henry. They were carrying their 3-year-old son, Thomas John, who has cerebral palsy and was headed for a preschool program.
"Are you still sleeping?" Holmes asked the young boy, whose bright green eyes looked up at her.
By the final part of the route, Holmes was shaking her head. Some students had to wait more than an hour. Some pointed out that they were late. The bus arrived at school during first period.
"It does bother me that we were running late on the first day," Holmes said. "But these things happen. It will all work out."
Most waits were nowhere near as long, and transportation officials already were working on remedies by the middle of the morning.
William Vasquez went directly to the main transportation office for help. He thought the Gandy Boulevard bus stop for his son, 9-year-old David, was dangerous. He wanted it changed.
"I know that area pretty well," bus compound supervisor Tamilyn Hartman told Vasquez as they looked at a map.
In what had already been a chaotic day for the both of them, the school official and the concerned parent put their heads together in search of a solution.
"Unfortunately, it can't happen overnight," Hartman said. "Can you get him to school tomorrow?"
"No problem," Vasquez said.
"We'll take care of it," Hartman said.
By mid afternoon, she had driven to the bus stop and saw there was indeed a problem. It was unsafe for small children. It would be changed.