CRESTWOOD, Ky. (WDRB) -- Students at Oldham County Schools headed back to class Wednesday. 

The Oldham County school district consists of a preschool, nine elementary schools, four middle schools, three high schools, an alternative school, a career center and a center for the arts and community education.

"It was incredible seeing all the smiling faces this morning, especially the young ones are so excited," Lori Webb, communications director for the district, said early Wednesday afternoon. "I can't say enough good things about the staff. The energy that they had this morning was through the roof, and that energy transfers to the kids."

Student enrollment in preschool through 12th grade has been holding steady at nearly 12,400 for the past several years.

"Up to this point, it's been great. It's been a great first day," Webb said. "(Today's) morning transportation went about as expected. A couple of late buses, but all in all, it was a really good morning."

Oldham County elementary schools start at 7:40 a.m. But this year, a bus driver shortage led the district to move the middle and high schools back, running now from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some drivers may need to do double bus runs to get middle and high school students to school on-time.

"We're facing a shortage of bus drivers, like every other district in Kentucky and across the nation, and what we were seeing ... especially toward the end of last year, is we had some buses that were getting to school after the start time, about 15 minutes," Webb said. "Obviously, every minute of education is important. So just switching it back 15 minutes will give us extra time to make sure those kids arrive on time for school."

As of Wednesday, Webb said the district is short about 23 bus drivers. Click here to access bus route information (Make sure you have your student's ID number). Parents who requested transportation that's not showing the route information in e-Link need to call their child's school.

Masks are optional right now in OCS, and Webb said there aren't plans to change that. If students test positive, they're asked to isolate for five days. They can come back to class on day six, and it's recommended they were a mask on days six through 10

To report any issues, like a bus not showing up, call the transportation office at 502-222-9337.

Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.