Some already headed back to school

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Some Wake County teachers are scrambling to regroup and get ready for a new school year after only a week since their last classes ended.

They'll be back in front of students beginning Monday at year-round school for Tracks 1-3.

The principal at Banks Road Elementary School invited ABC11 inside to see teachers hard at work. We found teachers doing lesson plans in the hallway while others were in classrooms finishing up name tags and putting together folders for grade assessments.

Year-round teachers are under the gun to get everything ready. Tracks 2-4 ended this past Friday. That means staff have one week to switch everything out for the incoming class.

Teacher assistants are helping out.

"We've only had a week," said kindergarten T.A. Faith Clapp. "I know it's a lot of work and we hadn't been in this classroom before so we had to set the whole classroom up."

Banks Road Principal Jessica Burroughs said most of her staff will have to forgo the weekend and come into work to finish their classrooms in time.

A crush of roughly 43,000 Wake County students are heading back to school in July.

New this school year, the district is standardizing the practice of using identifier tags for elementary students that use school transportation.

Officials say having a consistent procedure will help our drivers to better serve students, especially the youngest riders.

The tags will include school and transportation information to help students use the correct route and stop. The tag will be placed in a plastic holder that will be attached to a student's book bag. Tags for Pre-K, kindergarten and first-grade students will be bright red and tags for 2nd through 5th graders will be yellow.

Once schools place the tags on student book bags, students should keep them attached. Bus drivers will look to see that students have tags when boarding the bus in the morning. In the afternoon, bus riders will be required to have a tag in order to board the bus. At the start of the school year, some students may use a temporary bus pass while they are being assigned school transportation.