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First Student

Friday, October 12, 2012

How Rockwood Bus Seats are Calculated

A Patch reader asked if bus capacity could be explained. Patch secured answers from William Sloan, Rockwood School District director of purchasing and transportation.

The following bus-related questions from Patch were addressed by William Sloan, Rockwood School District director of purchasing and transportation in Eureka. How is the number of students allowed per bus arrived at? Specifically, how many students per seat? Some parents think three middle schoolers per seat doesn't leave room. "We work with First Student on ridership and bus loading, but the answer to your question is complicated. The routing system used by First Student utilizes a weighted load factor by grade that determines how many students are assigned to a bus. As an example for high school, a factor of .05 is used for 12th graders. This means 5 percent of the seniors are expected to ride. The factor used for 11th grade is .10, for …

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Rockwood Bus Drivers Fill In From California

When a shortage of bus drivers popped up among First Student bus transportation in the Midwest, see where some Rockwood School District local drivers went.

With job shortages and a depressed economy, who knew it would be challenging for student transportation companies to find qualified drivers? This dilemma even affected First Student, Inc., the transportation entity that supplies buses throughout Rockwood School District—including back to school routes Tuesday. A tip from a Patch reader alleged that out-of-state bus drivers arrived in town Monday, leaving "them no time to learn their (Rockwood) routes." The reader also had heard some local Rockwood bus drivers had been sent elsewhere to make up for a shortage of bus drivers among the U.S. locations serviced by First Student. Patch verified with a First Student representative Tuesday they sent 13 of their drivers from the Rockwood area to …

James Duggan

10:07 am on Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Cal. drivers arrived late Monday afternoon, and did 1 dry run on Monday night. They were not ready to drive on Tuesday morning, but they were ordered to drive anyway. Buses very late to stops, kids let off at wrong stops, etc. were standard on Tues. and Weds.   more ›

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