It’s that time again. On Monday, most of the students throughout Pike County will return to class. Those at Pike Liberal Arts School returned to class on Friday, but the public schools resume classes Monday, and that means traffic and busses will out in full force, as well as hundreds of teen drivers headed to and from campus each day.

Back to school is an exciting time for students, a welcome relief for some parents and, sadly, an end to the not-so-lazy days of summer. It signals a return to the routine of learning and is a harbinger of the changing of the seasons, of the joys to come with football in the fall, Christmas in the winter, baseball in the spring. But let’s not lose sight of the most important aspect – the academics and the learning. Students need our help as parents and a community to be well-prepared to learn, and we need to resolve now to provide them with the support they need to have a successful school year, from homework help to bedtime routines to well-rounded meals and supportive shoulders when times get tough.

School is, ultimately, a joint effort between the educators and the parents, and our students need us to work together to provide them the best education, and the best school year, we possibly can.

So keep that in mind this weekend and you gather those last-minute school supplies during the tax-free holiday (at our local stores, of course). And keep that in mind as you tuck your child in on Sunday and talk about the school day ahead on Monday.

It’s the start of a new year, a new opportunity and a new slate … what will be the lessons you help your child learn this year?