July 21, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
If DeKalb County Schools reopen as planned in the traditional manner August 3 will bus transportation be provided?
Yes, but proper social distancing will be a challenge. Parents with concerns about putting their children on a bus may opt to bring them to school or choose remote learning.
Director of Schools Patrick Cripps and Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder appeared on WJLE Thursday morning to address this question and many others.
If you missed the program or would like to hear it again click the link below
https://www.wjle.com/reopening-dekalb-county-schools
One caller asked “If a child rides the bus who is asymptomatic and then enters the school wouldn’t all those other people on the bus, including some who go to other schools, be contaminated too”?
“We have said from the beginning that we have no way of social distancing kids on a school bus,” said Reeder. “We will have hand sanitizers and provide masks but a bus is a difficult situation. We encourage everyone who can to bring their child to school. Hopefully that will alleviate some of the problems but that is a choice you as a parent are going to have to make because we don’t have enough bus drivers, buses, or time to social distance on the bus and everybody we have talked to (other school districts) are basically in the same boat. We know it’s a tough situation but if you don’t have a way to get your child to school you will have to decide whether to put the child on the bus or choose remote learning. Everybody has to weigh their own situation and do what is best for them,” Reeder said.
The caller then followed up with this question. “ What about the bus drivers. A lot of them are older. What if they get sick. We know there are not many substitutes for the bus drivers and some drivers ran double routes last year. What about that?”
“We have fewer bus drivers than last year so we will not be able to run double routes this year. We are trying to find more bus drivers. We have been advertising for two years trying to get more drivers in so if you know of anyone who would like to be a bus driver let us know and we’ll put them to work. There may be routes that won’t be covered. We can’t cross contaminate drivers. We can’t ask one driver to run a route, drop off a load of students at school, and go pick up another set of kids on a different route because if a COVID case comes up we have to trace where that child has been so there may very well be routes that are not covered where parents will have to bring their children to school,” said Director Cripps.