If the rest of the new school year goes as well as the first day of classes, “We will have a great year,” the superintendent of Vicksburg Warren School District said late Monday.

“Everything went well,” Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford said.

VWSD saw about 8,500 students enrolled, about 400 fewer than last year though exact figures aren’t available yet, and more than 6,500 students registered to ride the district’s 152 buses on 180 routes.

Porters Chapel Academy also returned to classes Monday.

“It was a good first day,” Headmaster Doug Branning said. “We were able to put everybody where they needed to go.”

Branning said 220 students enrolled the first day.

Vicksburg Catholic School students are to return to the classroom Wednesday.

Traffic at all 15 public schools was congested, as it usually is each year for the first few days, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said.

“All of the schools experienced large volumes of cars,” he said. “As the week progresses, a lot of students will be riding the bus.”

Bovina Elementary principal Miki Ginn said her school’s first day was “typical.”

“It was a great, typical first day,” she said. “We had lots of parents come by today.”

She said teachers and administrators were able to load the 200 out of 327 students onto the buses in about 12 minutes.

“In dismissal, we wanted to assure parents that their little ones were going to be delivered safely,” Dana Road Elementary principal Dr. Ethel Lassiter said. “We had to spend some time to verify addresses and make sure everyone was on the right bus.”

After-school traffic remained congested about 30 minutes after dismissal, Lassiter said.

“The buses were caught up in the car ride traffic,” she said. “In the first week, we have a lot of car riders. After the first week, it tapers off.”

About 340 of Dana Road’s 645 students ride the bus, Lassiter said.

While most schools had a typical day, Grove Street School coped with tragedy Monday, acting principal Charles Bubba Hanks said.

Third-grade teacher Quincy Jones died Sunday at his home.

“With the tragedy of Mr. Jones, it was a tough day,” said Hanks. “It was a solemn day. We shed a few tears. The teachers came together and we did what Mr. Jones would have wanted — to be with the kids.”

Jones taught eighth grade at Grove Street last year.

There were 41 students at Grove Street Monday, said Hanks, who retired last year from Redwood Elementary as principal. He returned part-time to lead Grove Street until September when new principal Lee Dixon arrives.