Tulsa School superintendent rides the bus on the first day of classes

The first day of classes for Tulsa Public Schools and alarm clocks went off Monday morning, waking Tulsa students up for the first day of the new school year. <br/><br/>Some sleepy-eyed students filed

Monday, August 22nd 2005, 9:40 am

By: News On 6

The first day of classes for Tulsa Public Schools and alarm clocks went off Monday morning, waking Tulsa students up for the first day of the new school year.

Some sleepy-eyed students filed into the bus and were greeted by the man in charge.

News on 6 reporter Omar Villafranca says at 7:20 AM Tulsa Public School Superintendent Dr. David Sawyer was standing in the rain, waiting for the school bus. Monday was the first day of school for Tulsa and the first day with a new class schedule.

Elementary students started at 8 AM, middle and high schoolers started 45 minutes later. The change was well publicized, but Dr. Sawyer still expects some students to be tardy. "We may have a few. I think there are some that may not know the changes but again we'll be a little flexible for the first couple of days."

Dr. Sawyer says several parents came up to bus drivers, just to make sure they got the bus schedules down, but getting to school on the first day did have some glitches. â€œMaking a left turn on this street near Memorial was a problem, since the green left turn arrow never appeared. There were a few traffic problems along the way. We had a few traffic lights that didn't seem to have a left turn signal programmed for the new start times. A few details like that."

Dr. David Sawyer starts the first day of his last year with TPS and he says he hopes to work out all the kinks with the new schedule. Dr. Sawyer â€˜s contract runs through the end of June and he says he still plans to retire after that.