One Waterloo family is experiencing the rarest of rare situations this school year.

Parents Mark and Lindsay Springer have children attending five different schools within the Waterloo School District.

Their youngest child, Morgan, attends kindergarten at Zahnow Elementary. Then there’s Carson, a second grader at Rogers Elementary, followed by Ryan, a fourth grader at Gardner Elementary. The others are Mason, a sixth grader at Waterloo Junior High School, and Austin, a senior at Waterloo High School.

Their age ranges are just far enough apart that they’ve landed in each of Waterloo’s five schools this year. As a parent, Lindsay Springer sums it up in one word: hectic.

“I don’t think this happens very often,” she said.

When she was registering her kids for school, Lindsay said she was talking to one of the ladies at the front desk.

“She had been there for 23 years and had never heard of such a thing,” she said.

One of the teachers at the junior high said the same thing, Lindsay said.

“Mark Jones said we were the first,” she said.

When the Springers found out their kids would be attending all five schools collectively, they were blown away.

“I was thinking ‘Wow, I can’t believe this,’” Lindsay said. “I wondered how we were going to make it work.”

All five Springer children ride the bus to and from school. Lindsay said it would very difficult to transport them all otherwise.

“Though they ride the bus, I have taken them (to school) before,” she said. “After school, I don’t think I’d make it.”

She said it takes about the same amount of time for the kids to ride the bus as it would if she picked them all up, so it works out anyway.

The kids have a pretty busy schedule. Along with school, two of the boys are involved in soccer and Morgan is in gymnastics.

Weeks consist of several soccer practices, gymnastics practices and youth night at church.

“I feel like a chauffeur a lot of the time,” Lindsay said.

She said the most complicated part of having a child in each school is how each of the separate schools begin and let out at different times.

“They try to stagger it, but I need an express lane and a special parking spot,” she said with a laugh.

Lindsay said that although her family’s life is pretty hectic these days, she is incredibly happy her children are enrolled in the Waterloo school system.

“We absolutely love the school district and we’re happy with (our children) being there,” she said.