ST. LOUIS — Parents with children who rely on St. Louis Public School District buses should consider making other arrangements Thursday and Friday.
In a letter to parents Thursday morning, St. Louis Public Schools said morning and afternoon bus routes could see delays from 30 minutes to two hours long Thursday and Friday due to a large number of bus driver absences.
The district encouraged parents to pick up and drop off students or coordinating a neighborhood carpool if possible but said it would also provide students with bus tickets if their bus is delayed or canceled. The district also made arrangements to keep children after school dismissal to accommodate families if needed, according to the letter to parents. District officials said if that has to happen students will be in AC with water, snacks and supervision.
George Sells, with the district, said the biggest thing is flexibility.
"We're doing our best to make everything go as smoothly as possible for our families," said George Sells, a spokesperson with the district. "That letter was just about parents being prepared because we don't want to surprise anybody. That's the biggest thing. A lot of the stuff you can't control, but we don't want to surprise anybody, so if we can at least have them thinking about, 'Okay, what's plan B?' We want to do that for them."
According to Missouri Central School Bus, a handful of drivers called out sick due to the extreme heat, which affected 13 routes Thursday afternoon across the district.
"When somebody doesn't feel well and can't make it to work, then that's a route we've got to cover. The more people you're missing, then you're having to double back and cover those routes and that can take time sometimes," Sells said.
St. Louis Public Schools isn't the only district in the St. Louis region feeling the effects of the severe heat.
The Francis Howell School District also had to make adjustments, according to Superintendent Kenneth Roumpos.
"If we want our students to be safe on the buses, we need our drivers to be safe, so we've been thinking what can we do to support them?" he said.
That's reportedly why the district is dismissing all middle and high school students 45 minutes early Thursday and Friday.
"The reason for that was really thinking about our bus drivers having that additional 45-minute break between their first and their second tears, which will allow them to stop at a building, go in, and fully let their bodies cool down and rehydrate," Roumpos said.
He got a taste of just how warm those buses can get after he and his leadership team rode one in the peak of the heat Wednesday afternoon.
"I wanted to know what our students are experiencing for their ride home, but also wanted to know what our bus drivers and our monitors are experiencing when they're on the buses for three to four hours a day," he said.
While we may get some relief from the high temperatures soon, Roumpos said one thing is always top of mind.
"It's all about safety. Our bus drivers transport ten and a half thousand students to and from school safely each and every day. In order for them to do that, we need to make sure they're taken care of and that they're safe as well," he said.
The Lincoln County R-III School District will follow a special early release schedule Thursday and Friday, with dismissal times as follows:
- 9:50 a.m. - New Horizons First Session
- 10:50 a.m. - Ninth Grade Center
- 11:05 a.m. - Troy Buchanan and Troy Middle, Early Childhood bus riders
- 12:10 a.m.- Troy South Middle, Claude Brown Pre-K, Main Street Pre-K, Early Childhood Education Center parent pick-up, Hawk Point, Cuivre Park, Boone and Lincoln
- 1:00 p.m. - Claude Brown K-5, Main Street K-5, William Cappel and New Horizons Second Session
- No p.m. session for Earth Childhood Education Center
Athletic events have also been rescheduled.
In the Wentzville School District, Holt High School will be released at noon Thursday due to ongoing high temperatures in the building, according to an announcement on the district's website.
Belleville West High School announced it would be dismissing students at 1:25 p.m. Thursday and Friday due to the "inability of our buildings to recover from recent mechanical challenges."
For an up-to-date list of heat delays and early dismissals, click here.
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