Marshall County Officials Stress School Bus Safety
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MOUNDSVILLE -- As the Labor Day weekend draws closer each day -- and with it, the return of students to schools across West Virginia -- Marshall County Schools administrators continue to work to ensure children are safe, both in school and on the way to and from.
The first semester in a world dominated by COVID-19 will adapt to the changes to keep students as safe and healthy as possible.
On Friday, Superintendent Shelby Haines and Transportation Director Harry Midcap explained the steps they've taken to change how transportation works during the pandemic.
Haines said Midcap had been hard at work rescheduling the bus routes, which had to be completely redone to accommodate cleaning between routes.
"You'll hear people talk about high-touch, high-traffic cleaning," Haines said.
"Multiple times through the day, door knobs and desks will be cleaned, because those are the high-touch areas. The same thing happens on the school bus, and they'll be disinfected between routes."
"Every time a student gets on the bus, it's been cleaned and sanitized, ready for the next run," Midcap added.
Because six feet of social distancing can't be enforced due to the size of the buses, masks will be required while on the bus, as well as for the driver. Students who share a bus stop, as well as those who share a household, will be allowed to share seats.
"We're going to talk to them as they get on the bus, but we're pretty well covered," Midcap said.
The buses themselves have each been equipped with hand sanitizer right next to the door, adhered to the wall with double-sided tape. Midcap added that the inclusion of the dispensers required some thought, as they had to be installed in such a way that wouldn't pose a risk of snagging on a student's clothing or bags.
Loading and unloading of buses will be done by bus, as students move to and from their first period class one at a time.
"The first bus will unload, and then as it pulls away, the next bus can unload," Haines said. "Harry had to redo about every bus route, because some of those buses were unloading around 7 or 7:30 a.m., so they could go somewhere else and pick up other kids. They redid 80 percent of the routes to be able to have the kids coming closer to 7:30, and then go right to their first period class, so there's no gathering."
Pickup times for students were not expected to be significantly affected, Midcap said, usually remaining within around 10 minutes of previously expected times.
Dismissal, Haines said, will be specific to each school, but students will universally be dismissed in small groups so as to not allow large groups to congregate outside the school.
Drivers will receive two weeks of training beginning Aug. 25, when staff will report to school, two weeks prior to the beginning of classes. Training for many service personnel has been occurring over the summer, as well.
The work to re-route the buses throughout the county, much of which is rural, proved to be a much bigger challenge than expected, as slight delays in one area pile up across multiple routes.
"I had to sit down with every route and see when the class time starts, and when they'd be there," he said. "We had buses that transfer, and that changes the transfer time, so we had to see if that bus was available. ... There's usually a way to work it out. Some are really tough, but the majority of the time, it all works out in the end."
"I don't think people understand ... how there are buses that have to go to schools outside their district, and so you don't understand that it's a domino," Haines added. "You move one bus 10 minutes, and ... it trickles down, it's overwhelming. That was one of the big things I was overwhelmed was, 'All I need is this bus to be 10 minutes earlier. Why is it so hard?'"
Midcap said the district would monitor and adjust schedules as necessary if the increased length of time to load and unload buses becomes an issue.
"Principals and teachers have been great to work with. They realize we're all working together for this," he added. "We're trying to cover it all as best we can and see how it works out."
Both Haines and Midcap said that the potential use of buses for sports transportation purposes would be addressed down the road when the issue of school sports was more concrete over the course of the school year.
Marshall County Schools will make an announcement Monday regarding what level of safety precautions will be taken for the first weeks returning to school.