Summer vacation winds to an end today for thousands of Spokane area students who are expected to fill classrooms Tuesday.

Most teachers have been back in their classrooms at least a day, and the 200 Spokane School District 81 bus drivers and attendants who made practice runs last week will find some 8,000 students waiting at the bus stops this week.

In most other major districts, classes start Wednesday. In a few, students were hitting the books last week.

Schools have undergone plenty of changes over the summer and face more this fall, from increased security to remodeled Deer Park grade schools to new classrooms in the Valley.

In Spokane schools, one of the biggest changes scheduled this school year won’t be visible to students.

Panic buttons are planned for school offices as part of a contract with the clerical union.

Secretaries and clerks are asking for greater security. They are worried about violence such as the shootings in Moses Lake, where a 15-year-old student is accused of opening fire on his math classroom last February. A teacher and two students were killed.

“You could look at a Moses Lake incident and have that occur in an office area,” said Joe Madsen, security chief for Spokane schools. “They’d need some way of notifying someone outside the building.”

The district is extending a security program that puts two-way radios in the hands of office workers, crossing guards, principals and other school workers.

Students at high schools also will continue to rub elbows with security officers who have the authority to make arrests - a program begun last year.

“There was some initial trepidation by students, but in reviews, they were very warmly received and appreciated,” Madsen said of the officers.

When it comes to student safety, parents can take one of the most important steps - starting Tuesday, Madsen said.

Take plenty of time to go over routes to and from school, especially with young children, he urged.

For at least a couple of weeks, walk children to their bus stop and back and remind them to come straight home after school.

Nearly every year, Madsen said, “we end up with some lost students.”

Construction workers will join students at all four West Valley elementary schools - Ness, Pasadena Park, Orchard Center and Seth Woodard.

Four classrooms are being added to each school, but the work won’t be finished until sometime after Christmas break.

Students - now crowded into makeshift classrooms - are eager to stretch into the new space, paid for with a $4.2 million bond issue, said Superintendent Dave Smith.

“We’ve had kids in shower rooms, locker rooms, closets, storage areas,” he said. “We’ve got them in every nook and cranny.”

Arcadia Elementary School in Deer Park has undergone extensive remodeling, too, said district Superintendent Glenys Hill. “The students are coming back to a very different-looking building.”

While some Spokane schools routinely use portable classrooms to absorb an overload of students, District 81 officials said they don’t expect much growth this year.

“There isn’t a boom in Spokane,” said Planning Director Ned Hammond.

But the U.S. Department of Education recently warned Washington state it ranks third in the nation in projected student population growth over the next decade.

Still, Spokane schools anticipate just 100 students more than last year. Most other area districts are expecting even fewer.

That could change at any time, however.

“Spokane has a lot of available housing, and when the economy takes an upswing, when we get new jobs in the area, I think we’re going to have a pretty significant increase in enrollment in our schools,” Hammond said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Back to school School starts Tuesday for students in Spokane District 81, the Cheney School District and Catholic schools in Spokane County. Districts starting Wednesday include West Valley, Central Valley, East Valley, Medical Lake, Nine Mile Falls, Mead and Deer Park. The area’s first public school districts to start classes were Freeman, Liberty and Riverside, where school began Aug. 28.