Drivers Watch For Buses as School Year Begins

(KNSI) – The traditional start of the school year is here, which means a return to the familiar yellow buses around town every morning and afternoon. St. Cloud Area School District 742 Executive Director of Operations Gary Ganje reminds drivers to be on the lookout for buses picking up and dropping off kids.

“Don’t just be vigilant of students boarding and onboarding buses. Drivers should allow plenty of space between the bus and the traffic. And they are watching for that stop arm.”

Ganje says riders also need to do their part to make sure the ride to and from school is safe.

“We want students to be seated. We strongly discourage eating on the bus. We don’t want that because it’s a choking hazard. We ask kids to talk in a relatively normal tone of voice so it doesn’t get loud. That just minimizes the distractions for the drivers.”

The St. Cloud school district contracts with multiple local bus providers to help transport almost 8,500 students a day on 138 buses. The first of 2,541 stops picks kids up at 6:16 a.m. The district is waiting on more information from the state to install cameras on the outside of school busses in the hopes of busting drivers who run a stop arm.

___