By Cristina Olvera, Staff Reporter
Each morning, freshman Dylan Law crosses his fingers that he’s one of the first students to board his bus.
It’s not because he’s just that excited to get to school, or see his friends, or enjoy the general pleasures that come with public transportation.
It’s that if he’s not one of the first ones on, he may not have a place to sit.
“Most of the time,” Law said, “if you don’t get on fast, you don’t have a seat.”
The growth of 380 -- and of Braswell in particular -- has led to overcrowded school buses, with at least one bus driver reporting a load of up to 84 students in the afternoon. According to Denton ISD, 71 students are allowed on primary routes. The maximum recommended capacity for secondary students is 55 passengers because of their larger size.
“The problem is with success comes new challenges,” Assistant Principal Keith Brackett, who monitors the bus lanes in the afternoon, said. “We have grown as a campus and this is now one of our setbacks.”
Some students have posted pictures on social media of bus riders sitting three to a seat or on the floor, even though Denton ISD policy specifically prohibits “standees” on its buses.
“The problem is with success comes new challenges. We have grown as a campus and this is now one of our setbacks.”
Brackett said the school has started running a new bus as of Sept. 14 to alleviate some of the crowding, though problems do continue, which Denton ISD Transportation Director Jim Watson said he is aware of. In addition to the recently added Bus 66, Watson said the district plans to add 16 new buses to the current fleet of 194 once they receive approval for a North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) grant.
However, Watson added that the main problem is not the size of the fleet, but the lack of available bus drivers.
“We have plenty of buses, but we don’t have enough drivers to create new routes,” he said.
According to Watson, the district hosts job fairs once a month to attract drivers and raised the average wage, while also placing drivers on a pay grade step schedule, which ensures a raise each year. The Transportation Department is also currently in the process of training 12 new drivers.
“The training process is very long-winded and strenuous,” Watson said. “At our location, we train our drivers for the five written tests, as well as the three components of the road driving test.”
In the meantime, transportation is looking for ways to reduce the number of students on each bus. One issue that has caused overcrowding is that students ride buses they are not assigned to.
“People who aren’t supposed to ride the bus get on almost every day, usually people who don’t even live in my neighborhood,” junior Maddie Moore said. “Most of the time, it’s people getting on to go to their friend’s house. Our driver doesn’t usually say anything because there are some kids who only ride the bus once in awhile. There’s so many of us, I imagine we’re hard to keep track of.”
Watson said there is a plan in place to stop students from riding the wrong bus.
“In the spring, a lot of money from the district was put into improving the card system,” he said. “With this new system, each registered bus rider will be given a new card with the ability to display a picture of each student when it is scanned.”
He also added that the district encourages bus drivers to use their discretion when it comes to how many students should be on the bus.
“If it’s three smaller middle school or high school students, then we tell drivers to use their best judgment for the safety of our students,” Watson said. “ However, if it’s three average-sized high school students sitting together or students in the aisle, protocol is for the drivers to call dispatch and for a second bus to handle overflow students.”
For more information about Denton ISD transportation, visit dentonisd.org/Domain/88
Faith Harrell contributed to this story