CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With the start of classes in one week, Kanawha County Schools Transportation Director Brette Fraley said bus drivers are getting ready to pick up students at new start times.
“We think we slowed the system down a little bit, made it more safe. The previous system, we may have had a bus that was doing two or three schools within an hour, an hour and 15 minutes. Now, we’re looking at buses doing 45 minutes to an hour for a school,” he said last week on “580 Live.”
Elementary schools will start as early as 7:05 a.m. countywide, while the nine middle schools will begin classes at 8 a.m. and high school start times range between 7:15 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Drivers will make three runs in the morning and three runs in the afternoon.
Fraley said they worked with several administrators and bus drivers to put bigger gaps in schedules, putting drivers at a pace slower than the previous years.
Fraley said the shift also makes routes safer, noting how bus use rates decline as students become older.
“The accident rates and illegal passing problems are going to occur between 7 and 8, and 3 and 4 in the afternoon,” he said. “Our earlier kids will be able to miss those time frames.”
Fraley said the school system is still training bus drivers and hopes to have all drivers ready by the start of the year.