September 19, 2012

District smooths out bus kinks

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By Bill Toscano

Nine days into the school year, Granville’s school bus issues appear to have been resolved.

John Steves, the district’s transportation supervisor, told the school board Sept. 10 that there had been some serious issues with the buses arriving late, especially in the afternoon.

Since then, according to both Steves and Diane Dumas, principal of Mary J. Tanner School, said things have been much better.

“On Tuesday, we were almost exactly on schedule, and by Friday we were on the schedule,” Steves said, adding that the number of changes for afternoon drop-offs has decreased.

“It’s slowly dropping, and we are getting more information,” he said. “We need to get a physical address rather than just ‘Grandma’s.’ If you have a substitute bus driver, he or she might not know where that is, and some of the younger students do not know the address.”

In the first four days, the backups were starting at Mary J. Tanner, where the kindergarten through third-grade students were getting on the bus.

“It’s going very well,” said Dumas. “We were able to work with John and speed up the process.”

In anticipation of Tuesday, early-release day, the school sent notes homes last week on yellow paper asking if there would be changes in their child’s afternoon plans.

Dumas said next year, the school will send notes home to parents in August to try to eliminate the issue in advance.