The clock was ticking last week in Riverbank, counting down the days, hours and minutes before local students would be back in their classrooms, with yet another summer behind them.

The first step down that path occurred as middle school and high school students appeared on their respective campuses, filling out paperwork, getting class schedules, buying gym clothes and otherwise tending to those back-to-school necessities before classroom work resumes.

On the Cardozo Middle School campus last Wednesday morning, Aug. 1, parents and their seventh and eighth grade students lined up in the multi-purpose auditorium to fill out forms and pick up their class schedules. Students also got their PE attire and paid insurance fees for the Chromebook computers they’ll be issued.

At the same time, students at Riverbank High School were lining up in the Fauria Gym to get their schedules, buy their next yearbook, get gym clothes and take pictures and pay fees for their Associated Student Body cards. That last line was decidedly the longest of the day, which continued along the length of the gym bleachers, then across the lobby end of the building.

Even though there were two photographers, it was the slowest moving of all the lines.

Other stations included parents registering for either or both the Music Boosters or Bruin Boosters (Sports) groups.

The day before, on the RHS campus, there was a freshman orientation, with members of the leadership club helping the new arrivals familiarize themselves with the facilities. An official estimated about 167 of the 200 or so freshmen expected participated in the activity.

Then on Thursday morning last week, the CMS campus was the scene of the sixth grade students’ registration and orientation. As did the upper grade students, they filled out forms, got schedules and purchased their PE clothes. Afterward, parents and their students were escorted around the campus to locate lunch and gym facilities, and their classrooms.

Sixth graders are kept separate from seventh and eighth graders at CMS, because they are considered elementary students, while the upper two classes are middle schoolers. The sixth grade classrooms are at one end of the campus, they eat lunch and have PE at a different time than the other classes.

Wednesday, Aug. 8, was to be the first day back in classrooms for all students in the Riverbank Unified School District.