Buses need to do a better job serving the school. Buses depart school too soon and drop students off too early on late-arrival days.

Imagine, you just walked out the doors after school when you notice a large group of students bunched around the spot where your bus usually waits for you. When you approach the spot, you notice that the people clustered around the spot also ride on your bus. After finding that nobody knows where the bus is, you spot it. The empty bus is stuck in traffic three blocks down the road. You and your bus-mates run to catch the bus only to have the traffic clear, allowing the bus to go on without noticing you. This is a scenario that is faced almost daily by students who ride a bus to and from school.

Often, students are left behind at the fault of bus drivers who fail to follow bus company rules requiring them to wait 10-15 minutes after school for students. In addition, buses drop students at school an hour early on late arrival days. This has to stop.

It may be inconvenient to bus drivers, but they should have to do exactly what the bus company tells them. A bus that leave early hurts the bus company’s reputation. Yes, following the rules may take slightly more time out of the bus drivers’ schedules, but it is their job to follow the schedule and rules given to them by the bus company.

Buses should wait the required waiting time after school, so students don’t have to rush to get to the bus. Buses leave way too early most likely due to bus drivers wanting to finish their routes early, and if you do get left behind at the school you will have to wait for a family member to pick you up, which could take hours depending on how far away they work. Whole busloads of students have been left behind before because the driver wanted to finish the route early, spreading the problem to many families.

In addition, on late-arrival days the buses pick students up more than an hour before they should. It is true, of course, that keeping the same schedule all year long makes it easier for the bus drivers, but many problems result.

Students arriving at school early disrupts zero-hour classes because students often mess around in the hallways before school. Of even greater importance, security guards have to work harder on late arrival days because they have to watch all the students wandering in the halls for a longer period of time than on normal days. Finally if bus students didn’t have to get up as early they would have more energy and attentiveness in class which would help the teachers.

The bus company and the school district should cooperate to conform to the high school schedule, making the bus more enjoyable for students. If they can’t cooperate then USD 497 may want to consider using a different bus company.