Rogers Looks To Bigger Buses As Student Population Grows

STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Carl Landis checks fluid levels on one of the buses on Friday at the Rogers Public Schools Services Offices. Many districts are ordering bigger buses to accommodate increasing student populations.
STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Carl Landis checks fluid levels on one of the buses on Friday at the Rogers Public Schools Services Offices. Many districts are ordering bigger buses to accommodate increasing student populations.

Yellow school buses will get even bigger in Rogers in the next few years.

Growing enrollment means bigger or more buses around Northwest Arkansas. Some school districts are adding charter-style buses seating 83 or 84 students. Others are sticking with the traditional buses seating 71 to 77 students.

FAST FACTS

Bus Riders

Parents save money when children ride the school bus, according to the American School Bus Council.

• The average school bus travels 12,000 miles a year and transports 54 students.

• Parents save 346 miles daily in the United States by putting children on the bus.

• Schools pay an average of $122 per child, per year in fuel to get children to school.

Source: American School Bus Council

Adding larger buses in Rogers means students will have more elbow room, said Ron Young, transportation director for the Rogers School District.

The district added two large, flat-fronted buses late last spring. Young ordered three 83-passenger buses and two buses of the same size outfitted with wheelchair lifts. Benches can be taken out to accommodate wheelchairs in those buses, Young said.

He'd like to have more of the larger buses.

Great bus drivers can be hard to find, Young said. Some of his have long-term involvement in the community, such as a retired biology teacher or chief executive officer. Fewer buses make it easier to find those people, because more room makes for fewer discipline problems and a better bus ride, Young said.

Seventy students fit better on an 83-passenger bus than 70 students on a 71-passenger bus, Young said.

"That's not very comfortable," he said.

All bus sizes are built to the same safety standards, said Bob Riley, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation.

The number of passengers that fit on a bus may be different than its stated capacity. Bus capacity is estimated based on middle school students, Riley said. In a 83-passenger bus that means a 39.75-inch seat for three children, Riley said.

"You couldn't put 83 high school students in there. They'd have to sit two to a seat," he said.

The greater the capacity of the bus the greater the cost effectiveness in transporting children, Riley said.

A few years ago, many districts were moving away from the traditional school buses and moving toward the flat-front transit buses, Riley said. The larger buses have a heavier chassis and will probably last longer, Riley said, but they cost more.

Cost is the reason Springdale School District officials aren't pushing for bigger buses, said Dana Samples, transportation director. Most Springdale buses seat 77. The few bigger buses he has are used for activities and will be retired to routes eventually, Samples said.

"It would be great to have them on routes. We just can't justify that cost," he said.

The Springdale district has had rapid growth in the past few years. Samples estimates there are 30 buses that could be close to 30 years old in the district. The older buses are used by coaches for transportation to practice or between facilities, he said. All buses pass annual inspection.

"We never retire a bus. We use them," Samples said.

Fayetteville isn't buying bigger buses, said Tommy Davenport, transportation director. Fayetteville has three 84-passenger buses often used for trips, but not routes. Older neighborhoods have narrow streets; combine that with Fayetteville's hilly terrain, and he said he's sticking with 71-passenger buses.

"You've got a lot of dips and turns and twists in Fayetteville," Davenport said.

The Bentonville School District bought nine 84-passenger buses during the last two years, said Sonny Lee, assistant director of transportation.

Driving the 84-passenger buses is like driving a charter bus, Lee said. Bentonville drivers are trained on a special skills course before they take the larger buses on the road. Steering is different on the larger buses, Lee said.

"There's a learning curve," Lee said.

Bentonville officials are ordering five 77-passenger buses this year. The engines on the 84-passenger buses are at the back of the bus. Dirt roads caused problems for some of the larger buses and the engines had to be cleaned and repaired, Lee said.

The longer buses are used for shorter routes on city roads. Discipline, especially on a big bus with a long route, can be an issue because of the sheer number of children.

"You've got two, three classrooms of children behind you, and you turn your back on them," Lee said.

The large buses are equipped with cameras, he said.

Riley, from the national association, estimates half of new buses have a camera system in the bus to document misconduct. There's a push to add cameras to the stop arm to identify cars that pass buses illegally.

"It's coming slowly," Riley said.

Bentonville has some buses with a camera on the stop arm, Lee said. All the transportation directors said cars passing buses are a hazard.

"Where accidents happen is outside the bus," said Young, the Rogers director.

Students running toward or away from the bus could be hit by cars, he said.

Buses are like a padded tank inside, Riley said. Students sit 4 feet off the ground and impact from most other vehicles is absorbed in the undercarriage of the bus. Seats are tall, padded and close together so if the bus is hit, riders slide into the padded seats in front of him or her. The driver's seat in larger buses, unprotected by the hood of the bus, and those in the rear of a bus would be the most dangerous places in a front or rear collision, Riley said.

Mechanics don't like the larger buses because it is more difficult to access the engine, Young said. Drivers love them, at least once they get a week to get used to the steering and sitting closer to traffic, he said. The longer bus doesn't have an 8-foot hood between the driver and the road, and that can be a good thing, he said.

"You can see what's right in front of you," Young said.

NW News on 03/24/2014

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