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ST. LOUIS — Yellow buses swarmed the city Monday, but transportation was still hit and miss for students on the first day of class as ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Public Schools grapples with declining enrollment and the closure of seven buildings damaged in the tornado.

The problems may be typical first day glitches, but officials from SLPS and new transportation provider Zum Services declined to release any attendance figures or information about bus delays that stretched to nearly two hours for some students.

Expectations are high for Zum, which received a $30 million contract after the chaos of last year with 19 different vendors and the use of hundreds of taxis to get children to and from their schools.

Families had to opt-in to bus service this year, a switch from previous years aimed at reducing the number of “ghost ridersâ€� or students who do not show up. Zum and SLPS officials promised that routes would be streamlined, and on-time rates would improve. Then the May 16 tornado messed with the north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ routes as seven schools relocated to other buildings and 2,000 students were displaced.

On Monday, dozens of buses were delayed up to an hour or longer in the morning. At least one route was canceled altogether, and several students showed up to schools not knowing they were closed due to tornado damage. None of the school buses appeared to be even half-full.

Some afternoon rides also were problematic, with parents reporting bus arrivals that ranged from 30 minutes early to nearly two hours late after zigzagging the city.

Richard Lindell, a regional manager for Zum, declined to release the on-time percentage or any rider numbers Monday afternoon at the traditional first-day-of-school news conference called by SLPS Superintendent Millicent Borishade.

Borishade attributed Monday’s bus delays to construction throughout the city and “heightened traffic� from parents driving to schools.

SLPS struggles with transportation more than any other area district mostly due to its abundance of schools and a magnet system that buses kids to buildings across town. Most of the district’s 60-plus schools operate at about half their building capacity for students.

A recent demographic study showed SLPS enrollment could decline by more than 10% this fall after 2,000 students were displaced by the tornado. Borishade would not disclose the first-day attendance at any schools including the seven in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ that are closed this fall.

“When you think about our first-day attendance, we’re still working on our attendance numbers,� she told the media Monday.

Gabrielle Cooper, 15, was at least an hour late to start her sophomore year at Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, where she is taking one honors and two AP courses this year.

“I’ve got to make sure my college application is nice,� Gabrielle said.

The bus arrived more than an hour late to pick up Gabrielle, who waited alone on a corner in the O’Fallon neighborhood, which was ravaged by the tornado. Gabrielle was the only student on the bus to start the 6-mile ride to the high school near Tower Grove Park.

Parents expressed hope the transportation issues would resolve in a few days or weeks.

“It was a smooth transition,� said Mary Russell, whose son attends Hickey Elementary, a tornado-damaged school that has been relocated to Walbridge Elementary. “He was still able to ride the bus, so I don’t see a problem.�

Jacobi Thomas, 13, said he was excited to get to Gateway Middle School and earn straight A’s again. Jacobi and his five siblings and cousins were the only children waiting for a bus near Ashland Elementary in the Penrose neighborhood, which was hit hard by the May 16 tornado. The group eagerly scrambled onto a bus that pulled up only four minutes later than expected.

Students who walked to school before the tornado were instructed to catch a bus at their closed school for a ride to their new campus. There were no students waiting for rides at Sumner High, Yeatman-Liddell Middle, or Ashland and Washington Montessori elementary schools.

At Washington Montessori in the Fountain Park neighborhood, where students were supposed to get picked up and taken to Ames Visual and Performing Arts Elementary, one mother said she did not know the school was closed and drove away.

A waiting bus driver left and came back about 10 minutes later, but took off after another 10 minutes when nobody showed up.

One student showed up at Sumner High, not realizing the school had been moved to Stevens Middle. The same scene played out at Yeatman-Liddell, which was relocated to Blewett Middle School.

A bus driver waiting at Hickey Elementary in the Ville neighborhood said she only had one student on her list for transport, but ended up driving seven children to Walbridge Elementary, 2.5 miles away.

Borishade said the district communicated about the school reassignments in a number of ways.

“There were letters, there were phone calls, there was social media, there was media — it was in the Post-Dispatch,� she said.

School principals also had teams calling parents throughout the summer, according to Karen Collins-Adams, SLPS board president.

“The school has a great responsibility, and they stepped up,� she said.