The first week of school — by the numbers

On the morning of Aug. 24, 104 school buses hit the road, ready to transport Clovis Unified School District students to their schools for the first time in two months. Shortly thereafter, at 7:40, the first bell at many district schools rang. And with that, the first day of the 2015-16 school year was underway.

In the 38 weeks to follow, district students will spend an average of 52,000 minutes learning.

The teachers tasked with instructing those students actually reported back a week earlier, on Aug. 17, which gave them five days to prepare for the next 10 months. On the first day of school their classrooms were filled by about 41,600 students. Although numbers were still in flux through the first week of school, district spokeswoman Kelly Avants said the district anticipated the number would settle at about 41,500.

New kindergarteners and transitional kindergarteners counted for about 3,400 of those students, she said. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider it would require 81,864 crayons to supply each of those students with a box of 24 colors.

Joining those kindergarteners as newcomers to the district, said Avants, were 329 certificated teachers and classified employees. Five of the district’s 42 schools welcomed new principals to their campuses.

The last school bell of the day rang at 3:30 p.m. — for seniors at the district’s five high schools, that’s one day down, 180 more to go until graduation.

Not that anybody’s counting.

This story was originally published August 29, 2015 at 7:21 AM with the headline "The first week of school — by the numbers."