With the first official week of school having come and gone, summer vacation is slowly fading into a memory for most Bryan County students. According to the Board of Education, the beginning of the 2007-2008 year has gone remarkably well so far.

"It has been the smoothest opening of school we have ever had," said Bryan County Schools Superintendent Dr. Sallie Brewer. "The first day, I thought, ‘we can’t be going this smoothly.’ But we had such advanced planning; students had already been to open houses and knew where their classrooms were," she said.

Brewer said the hardest part of the new school year is all the planning that goes into preparations before students actually arrive. This year, she said the open house events really helped students get comfortable with where they’d be going on their first day, and gave them an opportunity to meet their new teachers in advance.

There was a great deal of planning done by principals and school staff, which also helped make the first week a great one, Brewer said.

"I really appreciate what parents and staff have done to make this such a smooth first week this year," she said.

Brewer said there have been few traffic problems so far, though there was a minor glitch or two with the students’ bus routes.

"You never know who’s moved into or out of a neighborhood, so we have some bus loads that we need to address," she said.

School board Chairman Eddie Warren also gave the first week a thumbs up.

"Probably, out of the seven years I’ve been on the board, this has been the year with the least amount of initial issues, and least amount of phone call," he said.