With gleam, glitches, the school year begins: City system in transition; politicians make the rounds.

Byline: Sara Neufeld

Aug. 29--Fourteen-year-old Corey McLaurin returned to school in Northeast Baltimore yesterday to find much had changed since he left in June.

Thurgood Marshall Middle, where he thought he would begin eighth grade, had moved from a regular building to portable classrooms in the parking lot, making room for a high school that now shares the campus. But then Corey learned he was no longer enrolled there. The middle school had cut its enrollment, sending Corey and other pupils elsewhere. Corey said he never received a transfer notice.

"The first day of school shouldn't be this difficult," said his father, Corey McLaurin Sr., who rushed from his job in Jessup to help his son navigate the bureaucracy to enroll at Dunbar Middle, miles away.

Around the region, hundreds of thousands of students began a new school year yesterday as lingering summer heat left some in stuffy classrooms wishing they were back at the pool. As a result of several school closings and consolidations in Baltimore, 4,300 city students were assigned to different schools, a transition that officials said was remarkably smooth overall.

And in the heat of a campaign season, political candidates took advantage of the opportunities to meet and greet that…