Old Traditions Meet New Beginnings as School Year Starts

Familiar Scenes Blend with Fresh Faces

ALACHUA – As buses pulled up outside schools on Aug. 11, the first day of the 2025-26 school year in Alachua County felt both familiar and fresh — a blend of new beginnings and deeply rooted traditions.

NOW — August 2025:  Members of the Alachua Lions Club assist with traffic control at W.W. Irby Elementary School on Aug. 11, 2025, the first day of the 2025-26 school year. This year marks the club’s 33rd consecutive year providing safety support for the school’s youngest students.

In classrooms and hallways, students returned from summer break with new backpacks, sharpened pencils, and the familiar hum of first-day excitement. Teachers greeted children at doorways, parents lingered for quick hugs, and crossing guards in bright vests ushered families safely across busy intersections.

The rhythms of the day echoed a moment from 17 years ago, captured in a 2008 photograph at Mebane Middle School: students lining up at the bus loop in the warm afternoon sun, ready for the ride home after their first day back. Though fashions and technology have changed, the anticipation and energy remain timeless.

Educators say the first day of school is about more than finding classrooms and learning schedules — it’s about setting the tone for the year. In 2008, middle schoolers gathered in small clusters, chatting while waiting for the buses. In 2025, those clusters still form, but cell phones are in hand and buses come equipped with updated safety systems and air conditioning.

The first-day bustle is most visible in neighborhoods surrounding schools, where traffic patterns shift and sidewalks quickly fill before and after the bell. For students, the day marks the start of new academic challenges, sports seasons, and friendships. For parents and educators, it’s a reminder of the responsibility — and privilege — of shaping another year of learning.

The back-to-school season is also a coordinated community effort. Public works crews refresh crosswalk paint and prepare school-zone signals, local police increase patrols near campuses, and volunteers help stock classrooms with supplies.

A long-running first-day tradition is found at W.W. Irby Elementary School in Alachua. This year marked the 33rd consecutive year that the Alachua Lions Club provided traffic control during the first few days of school.

Since 1993, members have donned their gold and purple vests each August to guide parents through the drop-off and pick-up process at the school, which serves kindergarten through second grade. On Monday and Tuesday this year, club members once again lined the sidewalks, helping keep the city’s youngest learners safe and ensuring a smooth start to the year.

A current photo from this week shows Lions Club members on duty — a visual reminder of how civic groups, schools, and families work together to support children.

Whether remembered through a faded photograph from 2008 or experienced firsthand in 2025, the essence of the first day of school remains the same: anticipation, energy and the start of another year in the classroom.

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