School Bus!!!

I don't normally rant, but today?



So, last year, things were good. The bus came on time, kids all got along at the stop, I could make sure he got on and get to work on time. Kiddo loved waiting with the other neighborhood kids and riding to and from school.

This year ...

This year ...

We have a new driver and she has a new route. There are new kids across Broadway. And things have all gone FUBAR.

First thing's first, you have to understand Broadway. It's a dangerous street. There are no sidewalks along most of it and no curbs. There are hills and trees, and most people who drive it go way too fast as it's a main off highway artery. Driver visibility is poor and you can get some really violent crashes along it. There was one head-on collision where one of the two cars went out of control, struck a van in a neighbor's yard and pushed it through their front wall, and the same car ended up totaling one of our cars in our driveway even after that.

All of the parents on both sides have talked and all of us agree that none of the kids on either side should have to cross Broadway. It's just too dangerous. And cars will and have ignored school buses before or not seen them on Broadway making crossing even with a bus dangerous. The bus however seems to think it either should only have to stop for the east side or the west side, and routing doesn't seem to think it has to find any solutions to aggregate kids on either side at any other stops.

This has resulted in the bus either making two stops at close to the same corner or not stopping for one batch of kids at all, and it always makes one side hideously late over the stated pickup times with angry parents.

But today was the icing on the whole crappy cake.

It started out like any other morning. Kiddo watched for the one neighbor boy to go across the non-Broadway street to the kid across the street's house where the bus usually stops, and he went over with him. The three boys waited and played joined quickly by the other kids who use that stop. The West-side pack also showed up on their side. Bus stops for the Westside gang, turns to go west and ... never returns.

Yep. The bus driver simply went to the school and unloaded and never came back for the kids on the East side of the street.

A bit after 9, I get tired of waiting and collect kiddo telling him I will personally drive him to school because I'm already going to be very late to work and we can't wait on the bus any more. As we're leaving the house, another kid's dad has called the school and been told that they had to send the bus back for all the kids! At this point, I can't wait and take kiddo in anyhow. I tell him that I'll speak to the school when I'm there.

So I get to the school and march kiddo in, and I'm greeted by the social worker on staff who has been helping with unload. She gives me this sweet smile and says, "You know ... if you wait for the bus to bring him, he won't be marked tardy, but if you bring him, he's marked tardy." Then her smile slips a bit as she noticed my corporate tag (granted I was dressed in tee and jeans for casual Friday), "Oh, did you have somewhere you needed to be?"

At this point, I could have flipped out and hit the roof!

"I have to be to work by 9:30, and I couldn't wait anymore for him to wait for his bus, " I explained. I think my smile was strained. Kiddo took off for class, so I don't think he heard the bit about the tardy. I spent some more time explaining the bus stop situation and making sure she understood that *all* the parents on both sides of the street were in agreement and communicating.

But my main upset is the idea that my kid is possibly going to be hit with a tardy because *I* took him to school instead of waiting and getting even more penalized at work myself because his bus driver and their routing can't get their act together! You spend so much time as a parent teaching your kid that when *he* makes a mistake, he needs to own it as his own, and here we have a lovely example of penalizing another, a kid, who has no control at all over anything to do with this situation because the adults in the scenario can't their acts together.

It's not my kids fault that his mother has to work at 9:30 and leave by a certain time to be there, and it's even less his fault that his bus drive apparently feels like she only has to pick him up when she feels like it. But he's the one getting marked tardy because his mother decided to take matters into her own hands to make sure he was at school this morning.

a reply to: ketsuko

PS school administrators have been notably observed to be both pig headed stubborn inflexible and invincibly ignorant.

Good luck.

a reply to: TonyS

It gets one more week, until Labor Day. If it's not resolved and smoothing out by then, I'll simply have to pull him off the bus. I've been able to drive him myself all along, but he loves riding the bus with all the other kids in the neighborhood. I hope he'll be able to ride the bus home if it comes to that.

Wow !!! Sounds like all
Parents affected need to march into the main office of the school and demand reasonable plan to fix this .... Maybe even have a few options written out for the school to view ?.... Or they need another bus to do one side while the other bus does the other side of the road .....also get your legislators involved .... Local TV maybe ? ... More media attention will make the school officials bend .

originally posted by: ketsuko
First thing's first, you have to understand Broadway. It's a dangerous street. There are no sidewalks along most of it and no curbs. There are hills and trees, and most people who drive it go way too fast as it's a main off highway artery. Driver visibility is poor and you can get some really violent crashes along it. There was one head-on collision where one of the two cars went out of control, struck a van in a neighbor's yard and pushed it through their front wall, and the same car ended up totaling one of our cars in our driveway even after that.

Are the neon lights also bright, and is there always magic in the air? Do the women treat you fine?

I kid, I kid.

Yeah, that sounds like a major issue, and quite honestly, it seems like the bus driver should be fired and they hire a new one who will do what they need to do in order to accommodate all of the children in one trip, but do it safely. I wish you all the best of luck dealing with that.


Also, good job being there for your kiddo--I see too many parents send their kids to a bus stop and then leave before the child is even picked up. It's disgusting and a recipe for eventual disaster.

The West-side pack also showed up on their side. Bus stops for the Westside gang, turns to go west and ... never returns.

As someone who works for radio, get your local stations involved....we have a lot of sway...

I have a friend who is transportation director for a school district. The first couple of days of school there are ALWAYS problems. Give 'em a break.

a reply to: ketsuko

If you arrive before the bus that would have brought them, had they remembered, then how can they be tardy?

a reply to: ketsuko

That's ridiculous. Worse than ridiculous.

No advice for you, but good luck.

originally posted by: TheLead
a reply to: ketsuko

If you arrive before the bus that would have brought them, had they remembered, then how can they be tardy?

Rules rules rules...stupid # rules. Logic does not apply in this situation. If you try to rationally figure out these school policies, you will eventually lose your sanity.

Play by their rules or else you get flagged as a potential 'problem parent' for the rest of the school year.

I always find there is only one thing to do in those situations 'smile and nod'.

I remember when I was a kid, our bus driver must have been so worried about us getting a "tardy" that when the railroad crossing lights started flashing he drove through them and crashed the gate as it was coming down. lol. He was not our bus driver after that

a reply to: ketsuko

School bus.

I call em' roving stop signs who have the power to make everyone stuck behind them late for work.

a reply to: ketsuko


Also call the bus company.

My son once had a bus driver who was new, he was confused, missed kids, and slid into a pole in the snow; then he proceeded to argue with the police officer. Never saw him again lol.

I ended up driving my son for years due to some bull crap and safety concerns.

Call the bus company as well as the school.

Stuff like this increases my joy that my youngest is 36 years old..
I barely made it through those years with some of my sanity intact.
My youngest got married and moved away....my job was over.
I took out my bottle of good Scotch , my $10 cigar , and praised the maker that day had finally came...
Regained my lost sanity in that one night.

originally posted by: TheLead
a reply to: ketsuko

If you arrive before the bus that would have brought them, had they remembered, then how can they be tardy?

The bus that would have brought them had already been to the school once. It just plain didn't pick them up. The school had to send it back for them.

a reply to: KTemplar

Husband did that.

He was more than annoyed at the layers of bureaucracy he had to cut through, but he deals with corporate and government regulatory, so he's used to some at least.

He did talk to the person in charge of routing, and they sounded like they were completely unaware of what was going on.

I relayed my concerns to the school when I was there and sent my own email to the same person my husband talked to. I know other parents have called, but not exactly whom they have spoken to.

It wouldn't be such an issue if the bus were just a bit late. The time interval listed on the bus tag gives me more than enough to get to work even if the bus runs a bit late, but since the school year has started, I've been late every single day, and not just a little late, a *lot* late. And I refuse to leave him standing there. If something happens and he doesn't get on the bus for some reason, I drive 35 minutes one way. Who knows where I could be and he'd be left standing and locked out.

No.

I have to make sure he's either on the bus on his way or at school, not standing there waiting, because of things like today.

a reply to: ketsuko

Let the bus bring them in more tardy than ever?...if at all

Wowmmkay sounds legit

It's a good life lesson in # happens.

I've been screwed over by other people many times, it's a part of life.

So, a couple thoughts and a couple observations here...

First of all, I applaud you for having kiddo ride the bus. This is a rarity anymore. So many 'helicopter' parents anymore don't do this. Second, your local bus system need 'plumbed straight up' if things don't get ironed out quick. I agree with another poster who said it's early in the year and sometimes this is a chaotic time for buses and drivers getting used to their routes, so you should give it a 'little' time.

Regarding the busy street; don't be surprised if the ultimate solution is the bus winds up driving down the street in one direction only (and not picking kids up independently on both sides by driving both ways). Many school districts are doing this same thing. Quite honestly, I kind of understand it too because school buses stopping every 50 yards to pick up kids at their doorstep has gotten pretty ridiculous, and a long way from what "bus stops" used to be where there was one every couple of neighborhood blocks. Bus operations have become hugely expensive with capital outlays (fleet replacement) and fleet maintenance, but at the same time people are resisting the increased taxes to support these things. Something has to give, and usually extended service is one of these things. In our (very) rural area for example they have dropped routes altogether. For parents here, the nearest bus stop is now over 3 miles away (and it's on a 55mph County highway, not a country road).

At the risk of re-telling the infamous older generation's ..."Uphill both ways, 20 miles, in a snow storm, with no shoes and a potato in our pocket to keep our hands warm which also served as lunch"...story; when I was a kid our school was about 4 miles (as the car drives) from our house, which was below the minimum radius for bus service. The school itself wasn't 4 miles away, but the route to get there by road was. So, we didn't have bus service, and mom was not about to drive me/us daily. No way! So we had to walk, in Wyoming (and yes, even in winter..LOL). Anyway, there was a shortcut which was just over a mile, but it meant we had to take a shortcut through the desert for about half a mile. And we were exposed to all the snakes and critters of the desert in doing so, but that's just the way it was and everyone else did it. (never really worried about the critters, but wild dogs could be a problem sometimes). (This was grade school and middle school). The high school was much further, and there was bus service for that, but by that age only the dork squad rode the school bus. Times change I guess.

DP