The countdown is on to the first day of the 2008-2009 academic year.

In just 15 days — on Aug. 4 — students from the Lowndes County School System, the Lanier County School System, the Cook County School System, Georgia Christian School and Southland Christian School will grab their pencils, pens, paper, folders, and backpacks and go back to school.

Students at St. John Catholic School will return to the classroom on Aug. 7. They will be followed by students from the Valdosta City School System, the Echols County School System and the Brooks County School System on Aug. 8; by students from the Berrien County School System on Aug. 11; by students from Valwood School on Aug. 13; and by students from Open Bible Christian School on Aug. 18.

The shelves of area discount stores, both big ones and small ones, are already overflowing with most of the supplies necessary for students of all ages to achieve academic success — markers, protractors, crayons, laptop computers, stretchy book covers, rulers, pencil sharpeners, scientific calculators, and so on.

And the staff at Lowndes High School is already gearing up to welcome seniors back to campus for an orientation session on Monday. The juniors and sophomores will follow suit on Tuesday and on Wednesday, respectively, with freshmen from Lowndes Middle School scheduled for orientation on Thursday and freshmen from Hahira Middle School on Friday.

Inside today’s edition of The Valdosta Daily Times, readers will find a 36-page Back To School special section filled with everything from lunch and breakfast prices (which are up since last year) to report card release dates to board of education member contact information and meeting times to open house schedules to dress codes to the names of and contact information for central office and school-based personnel.

The publication is one The Times hopes will come in handy from now to next summer.

• Correction

The Valdosta City School System advertisement on page 30 of the Back To School special section contains an error. Valdosta Middle School will do lockers and IDs on Aug. 1, not July 30. System personnel apologize for the mistake.