‘It’s really good to be back’: First day of school in Lethbridge

LETHBRIDGE — It was busy outside St. Patrick Fine Arts School in Lethbridge on Tuesday morning.

The street was full of school buses and parents dropping kids off for their first day of classes.

"It's really good to be back. For many people in school, the first day of school is kind of like New Year's Day, so we've been hard at work over the last week getting everything ready for the students and doing some learning together. But now that all the kids are here, it's really visible just what we do or why we do what we do," said Kathy Jones-Husch, principal at St. Patrick Fine Arts School.

The first day of school is often the busiest drop-off day of the year.

AMA safety patrollers were helping to keep everyone safe.

Several schools around the city had Grade 5 and 6 students acting as crossing guards.

"I kind of just wanted to help out, just do something," said Grade 6 AMA safety patroller Luke Wright.

While safety patrollers help to keep school zones safe, drivers will still need to be more cautious.

"There's a higher flow of vehicle and pedestrian traffic in these areas and we just want to make sure that motorists are paying attention to their surroundings," said Sgt. Danny Lomness with the Lethbridge Police Service traffic response unit.

Tuesday also marked the first day of school for the Lethbridge School Division.

The division now has more than 12,000 students enrolled.

Work is already in progress to help accommodate the growing number of students.

"We've got a brand new elementary school being built on the west side of Lethbridge. If you've been on the west side of Lethbridge, you can now see what the building looks like. So that's going to be very exciting. We've got a modernization, the next phase of a modernization at Galbraith Elementary School," said Mike Nightingale, superintendent for the Lethbridge School Division.