The buses get here too late. Most arrive at 8:40, which is when the first bell rings, or 8:35 if students are lucky, which leaves most with just about ten minutes to get to their classes. The staff and admin must believe that’s enough time to get to class, but if you take into account students that have things they need to do before, it’s definitely not enough time.
The buses should get students to school earlier in the morning.
There are a lot of students who need to get here before school starts clubs or practices, but don’t have the privilege of someone taking them to school. For some students, the buses are the only way to school. This can cause them to get in trouble with their club or practices, and cause them to miss out on important things simply because the bus doesn’t get here early enough for them.
This raises the concern about the students who don’t get to sit and eat breakfast at home, or don’t have access to breakfast at home, and have to get the school breakfast. For some, the school breakfast is their only option. When the buses don’t get here until ten-til, and all the bus kids are rushing to get breakfast and then get to class, it’s just a big wave of kids in the breakfast line, pushing and shoving, trying to just get their food and go. Not to mention the administrators yelling at them to hurry and get out, which makes it even worse. Now there’s just a big group of hangry high schoolers running around the cafeteria.
Another issue is how this causes students to be late. If the buses run into traffic, or get stopped by the train, this makes the kids late. This makes a big impact, as there is a rule that if you have a certain amount of tardies and absences, you have to attend Saturday school, or even summer school. Most teachers count tardies when the bell rings, and absences after 5 minutes, which isn’t enough time normally, but especially if the bus is running late.
It’s understandable that the teachers and staff make it to where the students arrive later, so they aren’t all just crowding the doors and cafeteria, wreaking havoc on the school. But it’s just unreasonable to have the kids get there at the first bell, with ten minutes to do what they need to do and then get to class. It’s ridiculous, not only the bus times, but they lock all the doors that lead into the building so we really can’t get in if we’re late. They should have the buses pick us up at times that allow us to be at the school by 8:15, or 8:30 at the latest. This will give people at least a better chance of getting breakfast, getting to an extracurricular meet, or even just a chance to sit down and mentally prepare themselves for the day ahead.
The bus pick up times in the morning are way too late. If we adjust the schedule so the buses get kids here around 8:15-8:30, it would make a substantial difference. That little bit of time means a lot to some people. The pick up time would vary due to where the students live, but as long as they get to school between 8:15 to 8:30, it would help students out a lot.
