They’re big, yellow and lumbering, and they’re coming to a neighborhood near you next week. You guessed it: school buses.

The big rigs will back in action next week as schools across Grant County open their doors for classes. Following on the heels of a big Grant County Fair weekend, it would be easy to forget what a change the start of school brings to our traffic patterns.

So wake up, Grant County commuters. Remember that next week, there will be kids walking in the bikepaths and on the sides of the roads. There will be school buses stopping and starting on our city streets and rural routes. And there will be those flashing red lights that mean “stop” even in the oncoming lanes.

Drivers can expect the kids out there to be distracted by the excitement of seeing old friends, new classrooms and in the case of the junior-senior high, a new campus. They need the adults in their world to be alert and safety conscious.

It’s time to go back to school. Let’s do it safely. – SC