School open houses, for the most part, begin today.

This is a chance to meet teachers, principals, sign up for the PTA and make sure your child has all the necessary supplies.

For a complete listing, see the Durham Public Schools list.

The Durham Public Schools have now posted their bus routes to the district's Web site.

(This should come as relief to some of the parents who have been panicking about not knowing what they were.)

Transportation Director Scott Denton warns, though, that the bus routes continue to be tweaked throughout the school year, mostly in the first two months of school, because of new students registering for school or deciding to ride the bus.

Other handy information, from high school schedule checks to dress codes, and from supply lists to athletic participation forms, are also available at the district's back-to-school Web site.

The traffic clogs on Main and Broad streets, the jam-packed sports utility vehicles and bleary-eyed and weary parents are the telltale signs that another Durham summer ritual is underway.

The Duke University freshmen are moving in to East Campus residence halls.
Most of these students about to jump into college life were born in 1990, a year when rising fuel prices were forcing airlines to make cuts and a different President Bush was sending troops to the Middle East.

Beloit College in Wisconsin, which for the past 11 years has released an annual College Mindset List, noted the similarities in today’s headlines.
Tom McBride, a humanities professor at Beloit, and Ron Nief, the public affairs director, also had this to say about the almost 2 million first-year students who head off to college campuses this month.
The mindset of the class of 2012, the list creators say, is very different from the freshmen of 1990.

After a month-long summer break, about 3,400 elementary and middle-schoolers will be heading back to class on Monday, as Durham’s five year-round schools begin the new school year.

Take note that today and tomorrow are the open houses for parents at Easley, Holt and Pearsontown elementaries and Chewning and Rogers-Herr middle schools. (Here's the schedule.)

School supply lists are out, and parents should know that tax-free weekend is scheduled for Aug. 1 through Aug. 3, during which school supplies, and most clothes, electronics and sports equipment are exempt from sales taxes.