Monday, vacation ends and work resumes for public school students and students at Vicksburg Catholic School in Warren County.

Porters Chapel Academy students return to school on Tuesday.

And that means children and school buses will once again be on city and county streets heading back to class, and Vicksburg police and Warren County sheriff’s deputies will be out in force on the roads hoping to eliminate problems.

“I have already met with the officers to remind them that school will be back in session and I want them out patrolling city streets,” Police Chief Walter Armstrong said. “I don’t want them out of their cars during school periods; I want them on the road.”

He said officers will be at the school zones in the city, and police will be operating radar in different school zones, watching for speeders.

“We will have some officers at Vicksburg High School to greet students as they arrive,” he said.

Sheriff Martin Pace said he will have two shifts of deputies on patrol during the first full week of school, with deputies stationed at school zones in the county and others on county roads watching for problems.

He said people need to schedule their commutes to work and other places to avoid getting caught in school traffic when school is beginning in the morning and letting out in the evening.

“During the first week especially, traffic in school zones will be very congested,” he said. “I also want to ask parents to tell their children not to dart out into traffic to catch a school bus or a car if they are carpooling.”

“I want to remind the motoring public to be especially careful and pay extra attention to children, buses and other vehicles in school zones,” Armstrong said. “The kids have been out of school for several weeks, and the motoring public has gotten used to not seeing children walking along the road and seeing school buses on the streets.”

Motorists driving in or near school zones should take the following precautions:

• Watch out for children and be prepared to stop. Although you may see them, they may not see you.

• Cover your brake when you see children. They are easily distracted and may not stop to look for traffic before darting across the street.

• Expect the unexpected. A child’s field of vision is not fully developed, so they may not be able to tell how close you really are to them.

• Be ready to react whenever you see children near your vehicle. Children are not only small, but fast and can move into harm’s way in mere seconds. It takes 2.2 seconds for the average adult to react to something not anticipated.

• Watch out for bicyclists. There are more bikes on the roads with children opting to ride to and from school in the early morning and afternoon hours.

• Be alert around school parking lots. Teenage drivers are generally inexperienced and can often be distracted by friends, phones and music, ultimately increasing the potential for accidents.