New school year expectations
What can students and parents expect to see in the first few weeks of a new school year?
With the start of a new school year comes new routes and bus stop location changes for the drivers and students. We are all learning a new routine. In the first two weeks of a new school year, this process moves at a slower pace as we all learn the new routine. Parents take pictures and want to speak to the driver. Additional traffic volumes at the schools all cause delays during this time period.
During the first two weeks, the Transportation Office staff is busy adding new students and updating student information. Both of these changes cause additional stops to be added or removed from the school bus runs. We try to keep the stop times the same, however, sometimes we are unable to do so. After the new bus passes are mailed out, we will mail out an average of 300 new or revised bus passes. Please check the website for updated times and school bus route numbers assigned.
The office staff is constantly working with the drivers to enable all the students to arrive at school on time. Bus runs will be moved to make the changes necessary to accomplish this goal of on-time delivery to all of the schools that we provide service. After the first two weeks, this usually has been accomplished.
We are also collecting student counts from the drivers to ensure that the school bus is not overcrowded. The amount of late enrollments and changes in school assignments does add additional students to the runs and can cause the school bus to have too many students assigned. Usually by moving a stop from one run to another solves the overcrowding issue.
Thank you for your patience as we begin a new school year!