Alarm clocks buzz again

Backpack? Check. Pens, pencils and binders? Check. Know where the classes are? Not so much.

Chaos on the first day of school is inevitable, Newport-Mesa Unified school officials said. Most spent little time playing administrators Tuesday and more time acting as shepherds for children to smooth their transition into classes at 22 elementary, two middle and seven high schools.

“Today, I’m a fireman. Here to put out the fires,” said Phil D’Agostino, principal at Estancia High School.

Those “fires” at Estancia could involve anyone — D’Agostino welcomed a dozen new staff members, five of them teachers, and an incoming freshman class.

“I could be sleeping,” said Estancia freshman Jasmine Ramirez. Sitting on a planter next to Ramirez out front, freshman Edgar Vega sounded equally ambivalent about the start of school.

What could he be doing instead? “Staying at home,” he said.

On the other end of the spectrum, this is the last first-day in Newport-Mesa Unified for high school seniors. For them, the school year can’t roll by fast enough.

Continuing a years-long tradition at Estancia, the class of 2008 toilet-papered the trees along West Mesa Verde Drive.

The numbers “08” were formed on a dirt hill approaching the school as a walking overpass was adorned with school colors and messages from the incoming seniors.

For many students, the first day of classes is no big deal.

“It’s just another regular day at school,” said a relaxed Anahi Enriquez , an eighth grader at TeWinkle Middle School. “It’s not a big change.”

But seventh grader Jacri Wright was excited, arriving nearly an hour early, with his mother, for classes.

“I’m nervous, I want to make sure he keeps his grade point average up. He had a 3.2 last year,” his mother, Ivone, said.

Both were part of an early crowd at TeWinkle, where new principal Kirk Bauermeister had set up a pancake breakfast.

At St. Joachim Elementary School, a private pre-K through eighth grade Catholic school in Costa Mesa, ushering the kids into the new year is a weeklong affair.

“Our first week is making sure the kids are physically comfortable and emotionally safe,” said Barbara Tabbert, a first grade teacher at St. Joachim.

Day one is all about “policy, procedure and routines,” teachers said.

Though it spells the end of summer for children, for parents it can seem like the beginning of their vacation.

“Our last one is in!” exclaimed Gabriella Duncan, as she and her husband Jeff rode bikes to Mariners Elementary School with their children. All three of their kids are now in school, one in fifth grade, one in third grade and the youngest in kindergarten.

“A new phase of our life begins today,” Jeff joked.

What phase is that?

“Freedom,” Gabriella said, laughing.

2004-05: 22,487

2005-06: 21,952

2006-07: 21,421

2007-08 (as of Aug. 31): 21,366