D.C. Public Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey said on Wednesday the hype surrounding the first day of school in the District should no longer be considered a “momentous occasion” — a smooth opening day will now be “routine.”

Janey said he is confident new “bar code” technology acquired to track classroom materials and supplies has worked and all books, pencils and other items will be ready for students when they get there Monday morning.

“Last year the problem wasn’t that we hadn’t ordered the books,” Janey told school board members during a roundtable discussion Wednesday afternoon. “It was that they were sitting in a box in a warehouse.”

The new system should eliminate those problems, Janey said.

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The number of students who will arrive Monday is expected to again be smaller than the previous year, several school board members told The Examiner. Initial projections show DCPS enrollment should come in around 55,000, nearly 3,000 lower than last year and down nearly 25,000 in the past decade, members said.

Chief Facilities Manager Cornell Brown also said 80 percent of the schools have received major cleaning and cosmetic work during the summer and said just 5 percent of the summer’s major capital projects — including plumbing, lighting and other repairs — remain incomplete.

Just 20 of thousands of teachings positions remained unfilled as of Wednesday afternoon, school officials said. Last year, hundreds of positions remained unfilled the week before students returned. With nearly 900 vacancies at the end of the 2005-06 school year, Janey said he was forced to rehire nearly 480 teachers who are not certified.

School officials said all of the uncertified teachers being rehired are in the midst of taking courses and expect to be certified by the end of the school year.

Janey said if those teachers do not complete their work by the end of the school year, the school system will continue to seek qualified teachers to replace them.

The positive attitude was refreshing to D.C. school board members Jeff Smith and Carrie Thornhill.

The school year still will not go off without some hitches. Two schools will be moved to temporary school buildings because of major infrastructure problems, officials said.

Janey also said initial results from a new standardized test administered last year in place of the traditional Stanford 9 exam are expected to put more schools than last year below the federally mandated guidelines for academic improvement.

mrupert@dcexaminer.com