Richland School District needs a new bus route policy

Did you catch this story last week about a “mixup” involving a Richland School District bus and some students from Tapteal Elementary here in West Richland?

In short, several Tapteal students didn’t arrive home via bus at their normal time last Monday. They had gotten on the wrong bus, and the bus driver wasn’t answering radio calls from the dispatch center.

Why’d this happen? Because last Monday was the first day that some drivers were allowed to take over new routes based on seniority.

What the…????

Here’s how the Herald paraphrases the explanation from transportation manager David Conrad:

“Conrad said the first school day in November is when the drivers can change to new routes, which has the potential to create confusion.”

Yeah, I’ll say! Listen, all due respect to bus drivers … totally understand changing routes so that drivers with seniority get routes they like … etc., etc. But here’s an idea for Richland School District:

How about letting drivers change routes before the school year starts to avoid this “potential confusion”?

Who on earth would ever think it’s a good idea to go changing bus routes/drivers while school is in session? And these people are educators. Unbelievable.

End of rant. But seriously, am I wrong? I don’t think so.

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