i hate late school buses

DD's bus is usually here between 640 and 645. Today they didn't show up until 710! DD kept asking me (in that annoying 7yo way) when the bus was going to get there. Like I have some ESP that will let me know this answer. Now all I can hope is the bus depot did their job and called the school so the kids won't be marked tardy.

 

Wow, that's crazy early to be getting on the bus! Our buses don't come till around 7:50am. I hate it when they're late too though, Jack gets so antsy in the morning when he has to stand around in his coat/hat and wait.

 

And I hate early school buses!! We just walked down to our bus stop at 9:40 to see the bus driving away around the corner! The bus is scheduled to be at our stop at 9:50am, and usually arrives between 9:45-10:00am. Arrrgggh. Of course I had a neighbors kid too, so we all had to hustle back to our house and pile in the car and drive to school. Like I don't have a million other things to be doing.....

 

My kids have never ridden the bus (Sean used to ride it home for a while) but that would be irksome!

As far as crazy early, part of the reason my boys started not riding the bus is because school starts at 7:30 for the elementary kids so they'd have had to catch the bus at 6:55 -- yuck. I just would rather drive them anyway. Too much stuff can happen on those buses.

 

Reading your post, Kim, reminded me of your other thread in the Corn: if all kids rode the buses (or rode bikes/walked/skateboarded), rather than driving in separate cars, it would help slow down global warming.

 

Yes, it would, but honestly this is one area where I won't compromise until there are monitors who ride the buses with the kids. You cannot believe some of the horror stories that have happened even with the elementary kids on the buses. If they had bus monitors, I'd have no problem with the kids riding. It'd save me a lot of time and energy and the earth too! So for now, we do the next best thing. We carpool.

 

It's amazing that they don't have monitors on the buses! With all the talk of "zero tolerance for bullying" and all that, it's ridiculous to expect the bus driver to monitor the bus AND drive safely. sigh.

 

Tell me about it. Then consider that Sean rode the bus home in 2nd grade since B&C were still young and napping at that time of day. When the weather was bad in the winter, I'd get a phone call saying the buses weren't running and could I come and pick him up. Granted the roads here are narrow, windy and very hilly, but does it make sense for all the parents to then be out on the road too?

 

Turns out her bus driver was out today and she had a substitute driver. At the beginning of the year her driver was always here right about 650. One day out of the blue DD turned to put her coat on at 643 *yes I remember the time well* and she yells "mom the bus is out there", panic horror throw the door open so the driver knew she was coming and pushed her out the door. Even now DD has to be ready by 638 and at the door by 640. Needless to say she was bored of standing at the door for 30mins this morning. I am at a 9 day count down for DD never getting on the bus again. She is being homeschooled after the Christmas break.

 

At least she can wait at the door..............K&K have to wait at the end of our street.............some days I do contemplate bringing the car down so we have a warm place to wait............the bus is always late on mornings when the weather is less than perfect.......honestly even though it makes me late for work I would much prefer the driver take her time and be late than not being as cautious as possible for fear of parents being angry she is late and potentially putting her and the children at risk. She has two routes before ours so honestly I think it is amazing she comes anywhere close to the same time each day. Accidents/construction/road conditions make all kinds of vehicles late unfortunately including school buses.

Glad you have found a solution in the near future.

ETA: The bus comes around 8:25 normally but we always make our way down to the stop at 8:15, if the bus came 7 minutes early we would be waiting just like always.

 

We are like Dianne, in that we have to go to the end of the block. We watch 2 other busses from our stop, and one day the first bus came after us, and people were chasing our bus, because they use the cue of the first bus! We try to leave by 8:20, and the bus usually comes around 8:30.

 

I guess we are the only lucky ones with the school buses running on time . The bus stop is right by our driveway ( I open the garage doors for all the kids if it's cold or raining), and the bus is always on time at 7:30 - not a minute late.
It was a completely different story last year before we moved, when Dina's high school bus was always late and sometimes did not show up at all - it was just terrible receiving those phone calls from her about the bus not being there when I was aready at work .

 

QUOTE(Ellen Barr @ Dec 12 2007, 01:54 PM) [snapback]530898[/snapback]
The bus is scheduled to be at our stop at 9:50am, and usually arrives between 9:45-10:00am.



This is off topic, but that seems like such a weird time for a bus? What time do they go to school from?

 

Our bus is usually pretty predictable. I've been pleased with both of the drivers (elementary & middle school). The elementary driver d/n have as many stops, so he always picked Megan up in front of the house, even though the "official" stop was down the street a little bit. Now that she is in middle school, she does have to walk to the corner. I can see it from my front porch, so I don't drive her. The bus comes at 7:04, and she usually leaves the house between 6:55 & 6:58. School starts for her at 8:00, but they drop the kids off at the high school, first.

 

It is weird. Kindergartners are the only ones with this schedule. They split the Kindergarten classes here in to "Early Birds" (8:15am-11:30) and "Late Owls" (10:15-1:30pm). That way 1 teacher can teach 30 kids, without having more than 15 kids in the classroom for the majority of the class time.

It's confusing. But, basically they don't have enough money to hire 2 teachers, but are mandated by law to have a teacher/student ratio of 1/15 for a percentage of the classroom time. So, this is their work-around. From what I've read on TS in this forum, it seems to be a California thing.

 

We had a bus sub today, too, so Jackson's bus home was 20 minutes late. He gets off the bus at the end of our street, but because of the curve in the road, I can't see him or the bus, so when he's late, I worry that something happened between the bus stop and home. Thankfully, his best friend lives right where the bus drops off, so I called his mom to find out if her son was home yet.

Speaking of crazy buses, my bus to middle school back in 1980-81 was an absolute circus. I had girls push me down, boys try to burn my hair, guys smoking pot behind me, and there were hogpiles on the back bench seat almost every morning. And these were the kids I'd been in school and scouts with since kindergarten, and we lived in a decent blue collar area. What a change from 6th grade to 7th!! I remember one morning, a bunch of kids braced themselves against each other and were able to kick out the back side windows. I also remember once the bus driver threw the bus into park in the middle of a 4-lane, 45-MPH road to go grab a kid by the collar and scream in his face. There would be a lawsuit if that happened today!

My nephew goes to the worst middle school in town, in a really bad area, with probably 75% low income. He rides a bus to and from school, probably 45 minutes each way, and has never had a problem. I think they're pretty strict about rules and consequences for bus behavior now.

 

The bus driver was back today and she was picked up on time. On good thing about living in a rural area is the door to door bus route. All the country kids get dropped off at the end of their drives. Alexis is the very first one on the bus in the morning, so it isn't very common for the bus to vary all that much.

 

QUOTE(Ellen Barr @ Dec 13 2007, 02:38 PM) [snapback]532720[/snapback]
It is weird. Kindergartners are the only ones with this schedule. They split the Kindergarten classes here in to "Early Birds" (8:15am-11:30) and "Late Owls" (10:15-1:30pm). That way 1 teacher can teach 30 kids, without having more than 15 kids in the classroom for the majority of the class time.

It's confusing. But, basically they don't have enough money to hire 2 teachers, but are mandated by law to have a teacher/student ratio of 1/15 for a percentage of the classroom time. So, this is their work-around. From what I've read on TS in this forum, it seems to be a California thing.



That is really unusual. It is definately not a Michigan thing! At our school we have two full day Kindergarten teachers and one half day teacher. Our half day teacher has an AM class from 8:30 - 11:30 (usually 20 - 25 kids) and a PM class from 12:30 - 3:30 (also 20 - 25 kids).

I love to read about how other states/areas handle school days differently!

 

QUOTE
At our school we have two full day Kindergarten teachers and one half day teacher. Our half day teacher has an AM class from 8:30 - 11:30 (usually 20 - 25 kids) and a PM class from 12:30 - 3:30 (also 20 - 25 kids).
I'm confused by this! How do they choose which Kindergartners get to go for a full day and which only a half-day?

 

In Ohio, Sean went to full-day K because he went to a school with combined grades. He was in a K/1 classroom. The other schools in town were single grade ( K or 1 or 2 etc.) and were half-day. We just had to request the K/1 program and he had to pass screening for that program as well.

Amy, here there are strict consequences for violations on the bus, BUT the violators have to be caught. Since there are no monitors, only the driver, it's rare for anyone to really get caught misbehaving. Hence, my kids will NEVER ride the bus here. Ever.

 

QUOTE(Ellen Barr @ Dec 14 2007, 09:47 AM) [snapback]533876[/snapback]
I'm confused by this! How do they choose which Kindergartners get to go for a full day and which only a half-day?


I actually don't know for sure?? I requested AM 1/2 day kindergarten for my kids and that's what they got. I think they first try and honor requests from parents and then after that I don't know? Up until this year we were the only school in our district to offer this for Kindergarten. We have some type of State grant or funding that gives our school the money needed for this program. It is called Kindergarten Plus. I believe we get the additional funding because our school is a Title 1 school (many lower income students). I believe the idea behind the program is that it gives kids the extra boost they need to make them successful students later in school.