When the big yellow buses roll out onto Morgan Hill roads
Tuesday morning to shuttle students to their schools in the
300-square-mile School District, it will be because of the efforts
of the transportation department rising above several obstacles
that students know when and where their bus will pick them up.
Director of Transportation Linda Evaro said Friday that several
factors contributed to the situation which led transportation staff
to spend many hours calling parents of students to let them know
when to catch their bus and when.
When the big yellow buses roll out onto Morgan Hill roads Tuesday morning to shuttle students to their schools in the 300-square-mile School District, it will be because of the efforts of the transportation department rising above several obstacles that students know when and where their bus will pick them up.
Director of Transportation Linda Evaro said Friday that several factors contributed to the situation which led transportation staff to spend many hours calling parents of students to let them know when to catch their bus and when.
“There were a few things that combined to create this situation,” she said Friday. “First of all, we have fewer staff. Also, we have what I call the ‘Santa Claus’ mail; this was the first year that we didn’t have walk-ins, and many families waited until really late to send in their applications (for bus passes). We had one or two come in early on, then this huge Santa Claus mailbag.”
Another factor, Evaro said, was more of a scheduling problem. The department’s computer programs needed to be updated so more information could be put on the bus passes, but the representative one computer company had difficulty meeting up with a representative from the company in Morgan Hill that works with the transportation computers. Some of the passes were mailed out with no bus pickup times and no bus stop location.
“My panic in it, my concern in it, is that there would be students who don’t know their bus stop and bus time,” said Evaro. “Particularly this year, because the routes have changed drastically. A lot of stops that were there before are not stops anymore.”
Even though there was other work to be done, Evaro refocused her staff so they were manning phone banks, making calls.
“We have called everybody, down to the last 30 calls,” she said. “My girls have been working very hard, lots of hours, and they have done a very good job in a tough situation They are really dedicated people.”
Because she didn’t want to pull someone from the phone bank to answer questions if someone came to the department office in person, she decided she needed a bulletin board to post all the schedules on. What better bulletin board than a 40-foot yellow bus, she asked herself and had one brought to the front of the office.
Evaro said if a family has not received its bus passes by Tuesday morning, not to worry. The students will still be taken to school, and the pass should arrive shortly. If there are questions about bus stops and times, students and their families can check out the schedules on the bus “bulletin board” outside the transportation office on Eades Court.
Students can also contact their schools, as bus schedules for each school were faxed to the sites earlier this week.
