For months, administration officials and staff with the Dallas County Schools have been preparing for Monday.

There have been registrations, repairs, touch-ups and personnel changes and with the first sound of the bell Monday, the new school year was off and running.

“There has been a lot of work and preparation put in to today,” Dallas County superintendent of education Dr. Fannie McKenzie said. “It seems everything went just fine.”

With nearly 4,000 students in the system heading back for the first day, McKenzie said she and other central office officials spent their time visiting some of the schools in the system.

“It really was a great start,” McKenzie said. “From everything we have been told, teachers and administrators have said it was the smoothest start to a school year they have seen.”

As for enrollment figures, McKenzie said it would be a few weeks before officials know just where the system stands.

“As far as the figures we report to the state are concerned, it will be a after Labor Day before we know for sure,” she said. “But, from what we’ve seen thus far, there are some schools that are up and some schools that are down. We will have to wait and see.”

And it wasn’t just the system leaders enthusiastic about the start of the year.

“It’s been wonderful. We had a few new students enroll and the teachers have been very busy getting everything ready,” Five Points Elementary School principal Lou Ella Guthridge said. “We are eager to get started and we look forward to a great year.”

Dallas County schools will be in session throughout the next few weeks before they have their first break on Monday, Sept. 5 for the Labor Day holiday.

— Times-Journal News Editor Rick Couch contributed to this report.