The Bishop’s School and La Jolla Country Day School are back in session for the school year, marking the occasion with improvements to faculty, campuses and extracurricular activities. The Bishop’s School, whose roughly 780 students began classes Aug. 18, has welcomed five new faculty members — two new administrators and three new teachers, said Suzanne Weiner, director of marketing and public relations. The campus has also implemented a new schedule that permits a late start each Wednesday morning, at 8:20 a.m. instead of 7:20. “It allows faculty to have time to collaborate and meet, and gives students and family a little extra time in the morning,” Weiner said. “I think it will be a marvelous change for communication among the faculty.” Administration has also added an additional lunch period, bringing the total count up to three, and added 10 minutes to each period. “We serve hot lunch to every student, teacher and staff member,” Weiner said. “That’s close to 950 lunches a day. It placed a huge amount of stress on the food service department, and it also meant students were rushed during lunch.” Finally, the campus has implemented a campus card system that allows students and faculty to charge meals and other expenses to a debit account to which funds can be added online. Previously, bills were sent out each month. “This will eliminate charges having to be calculated by the business department and sent home, plus parents can buy tickets and other items online,” Weiner said. La Jolla Country Day School started classes on Aug. 24 with the largest student enrollment in its history, with about 1,130 students from age three to grade 12, said Chris Lavin, director of communications and marketing. “Given the state of the economy, this has been a very good year for Country Day,” he said. The school recently completed a $47 million five-year campus redevelopment plan that adds new buildings and facilities to its 28-acre property in University City. “Basically, it’s a mini-college campus,” Lavin said of the project, which included new athletic fields and tennis courts, new landscaping, fencing and gates, a new visual arts and science building, a new administration building and a new middle school. The project also added a kindergarten “village” with its own entrance off Executive Drive. All the construction for the village was done using “state-of-the-art, green materials and methods” that are certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Lavin said. Lavin said the school’s foreign travel and community service programs continue to grow in popularity, with students taking trips around the world throughout the year to complete various projects. He said the school has encouraged this trend by adding to its language programs to include courses in Mandarin and Arabic. “We’re offering more foreign language and more foreign travel than ever,” he said. “It’s a part of trying to get kids out in the world a little bit earlier.”