COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dan Good is retiring at the end of December. Today, 52,000 students in his charge spent their first day in school.

NBC4’s Rick Reitzel went along with Doctor Good for a day-long whirlwind tour of the district.

For four and a half years Dr. Good has been the head of Ohio’s largest school district, and Wednesday is his “last first day of school.”

You can tell Good likes to tease – I asked if this truly was his last first day.

“I don’t know that to be true, I had a last first day a few years ago and this is my second last first day, and there may be another,” Good said during his third stop of the day.

But after December Good said it will all be about family.

“So initially I’ll spend time with family, as you know I have family in Wasilla, Alaska and I will spend time there. My mother has a milestone birthday we are going to be celebrating, so we will do a cruise together. So, after that, we will see what the universe holds,” Good says after his fifth stop.

But this day is all about work, starting the day at 4am at the bus barn on Frebis Ave. sending off 864 buses for 37,000 student-riders. Then onto South High School to help clap students into school. From there he went to an assembly at Columbus Preparatory School for Boys, tying ties for boys who are entering sixth grade.

NBC4 asked about Good’s view of the district after his tenure.

“The district is in a good position to sustain the momentum built by the community over the past four years,” he said. “We have expanded the preschool offerings by 22 %. Doubled our reading improvement and maintained it for four years in a row,” Good said.

“More and more graduates are crossing the stage at the end of their senior year,” Good continued.

During a stop for lunch at Westgate Alternative, Good touted the district’s “our state, our plate,” program, like serving apples and milk from Ohio, which emphasizes locally sourced foods at Columbus City School lunch counters.

Asked if he would miss all of this, Good said, “Well certainly I will miss it, I imagine I will be doing something, after I spend time with family I will return and hopefully contribute in a meaningful way,”

Good said not only does he visit every school in the district during the year, he tries to meet every one of his staff.

He said the Columbus City School Board will decide on his replacement and he is not part of that decision process.