School transportation garages are preparing for another school year with some bus safety reminders.
Brent Chaston, Park City School District transportation director, said the district has not made changes to its routes or added any new buses this year.
According to Chaston, only elementary students living more than a-mile-and-a-half from the school are eligible to ride the bus. Middle and high school students must live more than two miles from the school.
“We have a meter device that we use to measure all those distances from homes to the school,” he said.
Chaston said students not eligible to ride the bus need to contact the transportation department to sign up for available space.
“Non-eligible kids cannot ride the bus until they have been approved to do so,” he said.
The transportation department will set up bus stops in areas that are convenient for all neighborhood students. The district has 17 to 18 busses running on average.
Students will receive their color-coded bus passes during the first few weeks of school which must be presented to their assigned bus driver.
According to Chaston, parents need to write a note to the principal and bus driver if their child will be riding another bus. Students will only be permitted to do so in an emergency.
“The purpose of this is to keep the children safe every day and for parents to know where their children are,” he said.
Chaston said they’ve only had a handful of calls from parents in the past seven years.
“We’ve been very fortunate here, but we have had a few calls saying, ‘where’s my child’ because they may have gotten off at the wrong stop or gone to a friend’s house,” he said.
The department enforces assigned seating so its drivers can account for the students each time.
Chaston said, this year the busses will also pick up preschool students, who require extra time to settle in.
He also wants to remind drivers to be aware of the cautionary lights on the buses and reduce speeds to the school zone speed limits.
“We have a great community here, and it’s a pleasure to work with the parents and students. I believe we honestly care about what we do with our students and children,” Chaston said.
For more information about bus routes and pick-up times contact the transportation department at (435) 645-5600.
South Summit bus transportation
Wes Blazzard, South Summit School District’s director of transportation, said middle and high school students need to be aware of the bell system changes.
“Because of the bell changes, busses will be running 10 to 15 minutes later every day,” he said.
According to Blazzard, the busses might also be caught in construction traffic from Kamas going north to Peoa.
“There could be as much as a 15-minute delay, especially in the afternoon,” he said.
Blazzard said the transportation department tries to pick up all the elementary school students, even if it’s within four blocks of the school.
He added that middle and high school students living east of Main Street and south of Center Street are expected to walk to school.
Drivers will do a roll check, which accounts for each student and prevents students from riding another bus.
For more information regarding the bus stop and pick-up times, contact the transportation department at (435) 783-2373.
North Summit bus transportation
North Summit transportation supervisor Ray Maxwell, said the district goes by the same state standards and will pick up students living more than 1.5 miles from school.
Maxwell said the rule excludes preschool students.
“We pick them up and take them if they live next to the elementary school. But that’s a different set of circumstances,” he said.
Students are only permitted to ride another school bus in an emergency and the authorization has to go through the principal.
“We don’t do birthday parties or Boy Scouts,” he said.
For more information regarding transportation, contact the North Summit transportation department at (435) 336-2198.
Safety tips:
As the first day of school approaches students should remember these safety tips: