Bells rang and busses rolled on the first day of school in Kentucky's second largest city.

The 2024 25 school year is underway for the 41,000 students in the Fayette County School system.

Lexington Mayor Linda Gordon and Fayette County Superintendent Demetrius Liggins greeted students as they arrived at Booker T Washington Elementary this morning.

While the first day of school may be the busiest of the year for students, Ligon says that educators have been preparing for it all summer long.

The superintendent also reflected on how things have changed since he first took the job every summer.

It was kind of ironic.

A lot of people often say that, you know, you get summers all about, you know what?

It's like, no, summer is one of our busiest times.

So we've been doing all sorts of things, you know, getting our buildings together, making sure that we're hiring teachers and staff to make sure that we're ready for this day.

And last week we had open houses and our families showed up excited about the new school year.

And this morning, they're showing up.

We really just ready to start school.

While we're here, beyond the pandemic, first and foremost.

And it's just an opportunity, we have kids that are coming to school on math.

S that are healthy.

That's no longer something that we're having to worry about, which is the big effects.

But we're continuing to sort of make up for a learning loss that occurred during the pandemic and continue to work with our kids each and every day to ensure that we can put that behind us completely.

Several new state education laws passed by the Kentucky General Assembly went into effect right before the start of the school year.

That includes House Bill 611, which requires schools to contact the county attorney when an elementary student has a 15 unexcused days in a school year.