More School Buses Needed This Year

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

RANDOLPH, Utah. September 16, 2015.  An additional bus route has been added taking students to high school from the north side of the county.  The students exceeded the number of eligible riders on the one bus.  Mr. Weston has 40 students and Mr. Johnson has 43.  This extra bus had to be added in order to be in compliance with state law.  The board approved this second route.

A discussion concerning policy 403.5.2--403.5.2.1 was held.  The policy states that only the children assigned to a certain bus route can ride that particular bus and none other.  The activity bus, however, poses a problem.  Many times the bus driver doesn't know the students involved in the various activities.  In addition, if there are other individuals who get on a bus who don’t normally ride the bus, a chaperon is required for each five additional students. 

A couple of weeks ago, eleven Boy Scouts attended an activity in Randolph.  This was a scout activity, and not a school sponsored activity.  The Boy Scouts, however, wanted to catch the high school bus to ride home.  Robyn, the transportation supervisor, enforced the chaperon rule.  However, when the bus got to Laketown, all of the chaperons got off the bus, but there were several of the scouts who lived in Garden City. 

The bus driver doesn't know where these extra riders live.  He is required to stop at the regular route spots only.  However, because there were the extra riders, it had been determined that they could be let off at the Church where their parents could pick them up.  However, when the bus stopped at the Church, there were several young boys whose parents were not there.  The chaperons had already left the bus.  It was a real quandary for the bus driver.  He didn't feel he should leave those young boys there without someone being there to pick them up.  However, he had the responsibility to get the regular students to their homes so that their parents wouldn't be worried.  He waited as long as he dared, than continued his route.   In the future if this happens again, this could create a huge liability for the school district and the bus driver. 

The drivers can’t drop little kids off without someone being there to take them home.  Also, chaperons must stay on the bus until all of the kids have been taken care of.  That means the chaperons must stay on the bus to the end of the route, and can’t get off the bus and leave their charges without supervision.

Because the high school now has two buses from the north end of the county, one comes back over the hill after school is out, and the other is used as the activity bus.  It appears that there may not be room enough to bring additional individuals on the activity bus.  Overloading the bus is against the law.  The District shouldn't have to add an additional bus to accommodate individuals who are not attending school sponsored activities.

It would be nice to be able to support little league programs; but when there isn't room, the district can’t afford to add additional transportation.  The school board is responsible for the school students, and parents will have to car pool or find some other way to allow their children to participate in such activities. 

It was noted that later this fall, many little girls will want to go over to Randolph to work with the high school girls to learn how to become cheerleaders and drill team members.  These two activities are not school sponsored.  There will be many more young girls involved in this project than there were boy scouts.  There will not be room on the buses to transport them.  There is another activity in the spring for this same group of young girls.  Again, there will not be room on the buses to accommodate everyone.  In the past, there has been room.  However, there are more students in our schools.  Buses are loaded.  If parents want their young girls to participate in these activities, they will have to provide transportation for them.

Currently, regular bus riding students must get off at their regular stop unless they have a letter/note from their parents or special permission from the principal.  This policy needs to continue to be enforced.

The board requested that Superintendent Lamborn and Robin Esterholdt go over the current policy and change the wording so that only school students going to school and school activities will be transported on the school buses.

It was noted that there are 133 students from kindergarten through eighth grade that are being transported from Garden City to the elementary and middle school in Laketown.  Again, buses are loaded.