By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Linda Bintner surveyed the intersection of Main Street and Richmondville Avenue warily Tuesday afternoon as the first day of a new school year came to an end.

Her granddaughters would be getting off buses there sometime around 4 p.m., and traffic was nearly non-stop.

“They need a crosswalk here or something,” she said. “Or a crossing guard. I hear horror stories.”

When the bus from Bedford Middle School did arrive across Main Street, the cars stopped as they were supposed to. The girls’ mother, Cori McConnell, whisked 11-year-old Lorelei across the wide, curving street.

The sixth-grader said she had a good first day of classes.

“I really like that you get to switch classrooms, and see different people,” she said of middle school.

Her 7-year-old sister, Penelope, a second-grader, was still on her way home from Saugatuck Elementary School.

Scarise: First day ‘successful’

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said the first day of the new academic year — amid continuing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic — nonetheless went well across the school district.

“We actually had a very successful first day,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “Everything worked out the way we had hoped.”

“There was a lot of positivity,” he said.

He said tents set up outside the schools, where students will eat lunch when weather permits, were well received.

At 3:15 p.m., a line of cars for Saugatuck Elementary’s afternoon pickup stretched all the way down Riverside Avenue to Lincoln Street.

But Scarice said while many people drive students to school the first day of a new year and take pictures, “We had a really high level of ridership” on buses.