School Bus Drivers Take Practice Runs for Aug. 30

Yellow buses will be winding their way around the streets of residential neighborhoods on Aug. 30, as the new school year gets underway. The challenge will be to safely get students to school in time for the opening bell, then to get them home by a reasonable hour at the end of the day.

But a variety of factors can make it difficult to beat the clock during the first two weeks of school, according to Interim Supt. of Schools John Goetz. New drivers will have to get used to the routes and the youngest children will have to adapt to going to school with "the big kids."

Many parents complained of buses being late at the beginning of school last year, and some believed their child's bus was overcrowded. The Monroe Public School District has been working with First Student Bus Co. on the routes this summer. And Goetz said drivers have done practice runs as part of their training.

"We really haven't changed the routes this year," Goetz said. "There might be a change on cul-de-sacs, with kids waiting on the corner rather than the bus coming to them and turning around."

The superintendent said there will be less "door-to-door" stops this year, so more children will have to walk to their bus stops.

"Everybody would like a bus to stop in front of their house, but we can't," Goetz said. "No school district can or it will be a three hour bus route."

"We ask parents to have their child out at their bus stop 10 minutes before their scheduled time," said Gabriela DiBlasi, finance director for the school district.

Though Chalk Hill School is closed this fall and some middle school students will attend the new Science Technology Engineering and Math Academy at Masuk High School, Goetz said the bus routes will not be affected.

DiBlasi said STEM students will take the same buses as Jockey Hollow students, adding the academy's school day will start 10 minutes earlier.

The bus routes are posted on the Monroe Public Schools website, but DiBlasi said the routes are being updated again and should be ready by Friday.

Once the kinks are out in the early going and everyone settles into the routine, Goetz is confident that any lateness with the buses will not be an issue this year.

One thing parents should know is that, for safety reasons, a child can only take their own bus. For instance, DiBlasi said a students' friends cannot take their bus to attend playdates.

As far as overcrowded buses, DiBlasi said the district tries to keep a load count under what the state maximum allows.

"What may seem to be overcrowded to some is within the applicable state guidelines," DiBlasi said. "Every parent has a different comfort level with children of the same age."

Considering there are about 3,700 students enrolled in Monroe's public schools this year, Goetz said his office had only received about five or six inquiries about the buses so far.

DiBlasi said the most common complaints have been about the routes. That there are no sidewalks in Monroe. That the bus stop is too far. And some parents have expressed concern because they cannot see their child's bus stop from their house.