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They've in­stalled new ra­dios on 930 buses, labeled 28,000 luggage tags for el­e­mentary students' backpacks and rolled out a new website and hot­line to give par­ents the lat­est information on their child's bus route.

But of­ficials with Jeffer­son County Public Schools are still the first to admit they're more than a lit­tle anxious about the first day of school Monday. They des­perately hope the many changes they've put into place will pre­vent the prob­lems that kept some el­e­mentary students from getting home until 9 p.m. last year.

"I think a lot of us are anxious and maybe a lit­tle nervous, but we just want things to go well on the first day," said Rick Caple, di­rector of trans­portation for JCPS. "We've worked so hard over the summer, and we hope all those efforts will pay off."

Those efforts began long before Donna Hargens was named the new superin­tendent of the state's largest school dis­trict -- but they have been her major focus since taking over Aug. 1.

"We want a smooth opening at all of our schools and for all of our chil­dren to have a wonderful first day," Hargens said earli­er this week. "That is what our focus has been on, and I'm re­ally confident that things will go well."

That wasn't the case last year as confu­sion over a new system for tagging and rout­ing students resulted in delays at Lincoln and King el­e­mentary schools, resul­ting in 400 chil­dren getting home af­ter 6 p.m., with some still on buses as late as 9 p.m.

The principals at those schools were lat­er suspended for their "lack of prepa­ration."

Steve Imhoff, chairman of the Jeffer­son County Board of Ed­ucation, said Thursday that he is confident that this year "will not be any­thing like last year."

'A great opening'

"I feel we will have a great opening, and I don't expect any prob­lems," he said.

Andie Adams, who lives in north­east­ern Jeffer­son County, said she hopes that will be the case. Last year, her kindergartner was one of the students from King who did not get home until af­ter 7 p.m.

"It was a very frus­trating day," she said. "I didn't want him bused that far to be­gin with, and then when they couldn't tell me where he was, I lost it."

Adams' son will at­tend a school clos­er to their home this fall, but he'll still ride the bus.

"I'm glad they made some changes," she said.

66,000 students bused

Starting Monday morning, 930 school buses will hit the road as early as 5 a.m. to trans­port approxi­mately 66,000 of the dis­trict's 101,000 students.

Those buses will be equipped with new ra­dios that have channels programmed exclusively to each bus com­pound, cutting down on communication confu­sion.

The dis­trict spent $1.2 million on the ra­dios earli­er this year -- a move that will help the dis­trict meet new Fed­eral Communications Commis­sion guide­lines and also make it eas­i­er for of­ficials to communicate with drivers and keep track of chil­dren.

The dis­trict also has revamped its Bus Find­er system, an on­line site where par­ents can find their child's nearby bus stop.

And Thursday, it rolled out a new JCPS bus hot­line -- 485-RIDE -- so par­ents can get the information they need before sending their chil­dren to the bus stop Monday.

The hot­line is be­ing manned by about 10 staff members, and by 3 p.m. Thursday, they had received hun­dreds of calls, said Ben Jackey, a dis­trict spokesman.

"We expect the call vol­ume to pick up over the next few days," he said.

The hot­line will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Jackey said the line will also be avail­able in the af­ter­noons for par­ents or guardians concerned about the where­abouts of their chil­dren.

"We'll con­tinue to man that line as long as the need is there," Jackey said.

In addition, the dis­trict's el­e­mentary schools will be us­ing in­stant messaging on Skype to communicate with staff members at the dis­trict's 13 bus com­pounds.

"Last year, schools expe­ri­enced diffi­culty communicating with the bus com­pounds to locate bus stops," said Amy Dennes, as­sistant superin­tendent for el­e­mentary schools.

"This year, schools will be able to send an in­stant message to the com­pound, and the com­pound will be able to respond with the bus stop."

Caple said the dis­trict is also pro­viding 200 additional staff members at the dis­trict's 20 el­e­mentary bus depots to help "en­sure the chil­dren get on and off the right buses."

Luggage tags

And at ev­ery el­e­mentary school, bus rid­ers will have luggage tags attached to their backpacks, with labels that des­ignate the child's name, bus number and bus stop.

The luggage tags, which cost the dis­trict $16,000, are red for all kindergartners and yel­low for students in grades 1-5.

Caple is ask­ing par­ents to be pa­tient on the first day, but he said he hopes to have all the students back home by 6:30 p.m. Eventually, he said, all el­e­mentary students will be de­liv­ered home by 5:30 p.m.

Excited to be­gin

Principals at sev­eral el­e­mentary schools said Thursday they are excited and ready for the first day.

"All the prepa­ration started in May," said Patty Holladay, principal at Middletown El­e­mentary, where about half of the school's 600 students ride the bus dai­ly. "We re­ally pushed hard to get all the trans­portation information for the fall into our system before they left for the summer."

As trans­portation forms came in through­out the summer for students new to her school, Holladay said she des­ignated one staff member as a "bus per­son."

"It was helpful to have one per­son who under­stood the whole process and who was also able to make sure we weren't for­getting any­thing," Holladay said.

At Bowen El­e­mentary in Lyndon, one of the dis­trict's largest el­e­mentary schools, principal Steve Tyra said he has been meeting with staff members through­out the week to "fine tune" trans­portation plans.

"We're ready and we're excited," said Tyra, whose school buses 550 of its 740 students dai­ly. "We are us­ing the luggage tags, but we will also be us­ing wristbands. Each child will get a differ­ent col­ored wristband that will des­ignate their method of getting home in the af­ter­noon."

Su­san French, the new principal at Lincoln El­e­mentary, said she is confident her school will have a smooth first day.

"We are feel­ing great," said French, who was the principal at Field El­e­mentary last year. "We've worked collab­oratively with sev­eral de­part­ments through­out the dis­trict; we've been able to devel­op these plans that will lead to a successful first day."

Reporter Antoinette Konz can be reached at (502) 582-4232.