Some 13,000 Roanoke students returned to school Tuesday for the start of a new academic year -- without the major transportation glitches that plagued the start of the previous school year.

Transportation ran "very well compared to last year," according to Mountain Valley Transportation General Manager Andre Harris.

Last September, a trio of changes -- a newly privatized bus system, redrawn attendance boundaries and the closure of two schools -- triggered a chaotic start.

On Tuesday, 20 of 23 buses arrived before the 8:45 a.m. homeroom bell at William Fleming High School, and Harris said the routes will become more efficient as the week continues.

Another transportation change this year: Mountain Valley employees will wear light-blue collared shirts with the company's logo, Harris said.

Other first-day-of-school news:

n The division consolidated Huff Lane Intermediate and the former Round Hill Primary (Montessori) schools into Round Hill Elementary School. The change did not affect bus routes and puts students in kindergarten through fifth grade into one building with modular units. Closing Huff Lane will save the division about $420,000 this fiscal year, school officials have said.

n Teachers are being asked this school year not to use tape to hang items on classroom walls. School spokeswoman Tiffany Woods said the request is not a school board policy, but a means to trim the costs of touching up the walls with paint when the tape is removed. Instead, teachers may hang posters and other items on corkboards, windows and from the ceiling.

"All the classes are still decorated," Woods said.

n Salem City Schools, with approximately 4,000 students, also opened Tuesday.

-- Courtney Cutright