Even with a new high school now open, it seems Neuqua’s buses are just as crowded as ever. With 29 buses servicing thousands of students, overcrowding is bound to happen. However, it is getting out of hand on some buses, and the school has acknowledged this problem.
With a normal capacity of 44-47 students, a guideline set by the district, some buses have nearly 20 people too many. While the school was planning to enforce the new policy of showing your ID’s to get on the bus, some students have opted to get a ride to school instead. “Originally the idea was after September 15th if you didn’t have your ID to get on a bus, you would get a consequence from your Dean,” said Principal McBride, “The district has completely scratched this idea…it will not be required to present it getting on or off the bus.” This rule will now be put on review by the district.
Another rule that was dropped by the district was assigned seating. Instead of this being mandatory for students the decision on whether to implement the rule will be left up to the principal of each school.
When asked about what will be done about the overcrowded buses and how to determine which routes get changed, Mr. McBride said, “We were just dealing with the issues of students getting on buses and getting here, now we’re dealing with the issue of imbalance. Now we start all the work of saying this bus is crowded, this bus isn’t, we start changing routes a bit.”
Tom Rowland, Staff Writer
