ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Additional students in the Rochester region headed back to school on Wednesday in Hilton, West Irondequoit, Fairport, Churchville-Chili and more.

In the city of Rochester, the district is welcoming some 23,000 kids back to class.

It's been a challenging time for the city school district that's had to fill some 600 positions, nearly all of which have been staffed. The superintendent search is just getting started.

At Roberto Clemente School No. 8 on St. Paul Street, staff members and teachers made sure all the kids felt a nice warm welcome to start the new year. 

The RCSD has 50 schools. It is the largest district in the area. The summer was a full-scale push to recruit and train with weekly job fairs to make sure every building and school bus had the staffing needed. 

A wide range of positions needed to be filled, including custodial, food service, teachers, drivers and support staff

"We went all out. We were super aggressive in terms of the work that we did," said Chris Miller, RCSD chief of human capital. "We partnered with media, we partnered on social media to really ensure that people knew we had vacancies. Spreading the word brought people to the district from charters, from suburbs. Really a successful summer to ensure we were ready for the first day of school today."

To combat the shortage of bus drivers, the district got creative with scheduling.

"We reduced a number of bus runs from three to two. "We contracted with an additional vendor to support transportation and we anticipate a great day with transportation. certainly, what we experienced last year is a thing of the past."

A big theme across the board is teamwork and community. The district is working hard to do that not only in the classroom but with teachers and administrators.