With traditional-calendar schools opening in just a few days, the school district is again trying to reassure parents of young bus riders that their kids will be safe.
In a new memorandum to Superintendent Del Burns, Chief Facilities and Operations Officer Don Haydon lists the steps that are being taken to avoid a repeat of last month's bus miscues with young children.
For instance, Haydon said bus drivers are being reminded that they're to take children to school even if they get on the wrong bus. Once at the nearest school, they'll figure out how to get the child to the right school.
The memo also references a name tag policy that all Wake elementary schools will use. While the online memo doesn't list the details, Haydon laid it out during a news conference this afternoon.
Haydon said all elementary schools are being asked to put name tags on kindergarten and first-grade students who ride the bus. The name tags will list the child's bus number and bus stop location. He said they should wear those tags for the first 20 days of school.
Haydon said the name tag policy is already used by many schools. But he said they wanted to make sure all school used them and that the information was standardized.
As you may recall, a kindergarten student got off at the wrong stop, four miles from home. In another incident, a first-grade student who got on the wrong bus was kicked off and left alone instead of being taken to school.
Comments
Well, guess who has to make
Sat, 08/23/2008 - 06:05 — amedinaohWell, guess who has to make all these tags? The teachers do. Just another time commitment. They have to find each childs specific stop, write out cards for each child with name, address, bus route, number/color of bus--laminate the cards, cut them all out, pin them to each child's bookbag. It is VERY important for the students to get to where they need to be but another thing added to the plate of a teacher instead of teaching.
overcrowded buses
Fri, 08/22/2008 - 19:30 — bigwinniehttp://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3420890/
ridiculous ride times
Fri, 08/22/2008 - 19:28 — bigwinniehttp://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6345191
Well, actually...
Fri, 08/22/2008 - 13:55 — Mrs. M (not verified)Just wanted to chime in with a couple points of information.
Most schools in the past have provided a tag for their bus riders, car
riders and walkers. The change now is that is is required for more than
the first 2 student days, and it is to be carried out for the student's
first 20 days of school. These aren't calendar days, by the way. They
are 20 days of actually attending class at the school. This also
includes K and 1st grade students who change schools during the year or
move into Wake County.
Did you know that 6 out of the 9 BOE districts
need a representative for the Transportation Advisory Committee? Call
or email your BOE rep and tell them of your desire and availability to
attend the meetings and contribute to positive change.
Hmmm...
Fri, 08/22/2008 - 13:14 — Bob_SconceSo, when I went to school, if a school bus stopped at your bus stop between 7:00 and 7:20, it went to the High School. Between 7:30 and 7:50, it went to the Elementary school and between 8:00 and 8:20, it went to the Middle School. The whole idea of "a child gets on the bus and shows up at the wrong school" just didn't happen. I can't imagine a Wake Forest kid accidentally getting on the magnet school bus, and getting off at some downtown school an hour later and not knowing what to do.
Of course, the reverse is even worse -- a kid at a downtown magnet school accidentally gets on the wrong bus home and ends up on the wrong side of the county.
Yet another advantage of neighborhood schools.
Bus Stop Blues
Thu, 08/21/2008 - 20:22 — Cathy (not verified)Sorry, Dadof3, name tags are a logical improvement -- of course that assumes the drivers know where they're going and have any interest in getting to know the kids on their route. After 7 years of my kids riding buses to schools 1.5 and 4.5 miles from home I can tell you that being able to read a map isn't a requirement for Wake County School Bus drivers -- nor is having any remote interest in getting to know the kids you are responsible for. What bugs me is that we were told on our year-round route that kids had to have "assigned" seats because of the problems earlier this summer. Assigned seats are useless, especially if there is a sub -- and there are usually lots of subs. We often go for long stretches with no permanent school bus driver. The ones we have (and this is in the summer at year-round when the transportation office shouldn't be swamped) end up asking strangers where they are, attempting to execute three-point turns with ditches on either side of the road and various other stupid things that can take what should be a 15 minute ride home and drag it out to 45 minutes.
No apologies necessary
Fri, 08/22/2008 - 06:40 — Dadof3I suppose we could debate over whether name tags an improvement or a tweak, (if name tags were implemented prior to the events, then it's a different context -- but its not) but as your own experience indicates, we got deeper problems and their response shows a lack of readiness for answering.
My preferred on-line language is hyperbole and my point was that, "This is it? You've got to be kidding." Ironically, the only way for WCPSS to provide a more thorough response is to provide an even larger bureaucracy, which only puts them at a greater distance from the interests of parents and student.
The WCPSS colossus is too big for anyone to manage.
Break it up. Go Ron! MYR = Fail.
oooh... a memo...
Thu, 08/21/2008 - 17:12 — Dadof3Let's rename WCPSS Hubris Unlimited. A freakin' memo, talk to the bus drivers and get name tags. That's powerful... ...ly inept.