Partnership secures transportation for students
Ontario School District
offers bus rides to youth going to local Boys & Girls club
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, October 4, 2009 10:23 AM PDT
ONTARIO-When Michael Bender first started working for the Ontario School District, he was only a substitute bus driver.
Now, Bender has a full-time position driving children after school to the Boys & Girls Club of the Western Treasure Valley, in a partnership that benefits everybody involved.
Beginning this week, the Ontario School District announced it was expanding its bus service to the Boys & Girls Club from just two elementary schools to all five elementary schools in the district.
Bender, who drives the shuttle bus from Alameda Elementary School and May Roberts Elementary, said the children who ride his bus really like going to the Boys & Girls Club and are always talking about it.
“I think it works out great for them,” he said, adding it gives students steady transportation and they do not have to worry about walking or finding a ride to the youth center every day.
The bus service to the Boys & Girls Club also benefited him.
“It’s steady work, and it’s not day-to-day,” Bender said. “And I like taking the kids there.”
Ontario School District Operations Supervisor Duke Clinton said OSD first began its relationship with the Boys & Girls Club last year when then-Superintendent Dennis Carter, agreed at least some sort of busing to the club should be provided for the children of the school district.
“Aiken and Alameda started last year, and that was kind of an easy one because we had routes go right by there,” Clinton said.
Ridership to the Boys & Girls club climbed so high, in fact, it exceeded the capacity of the buses, and a third route was created for Alameda students just going to the Boys & Girls Club — a route given to Bender.
This year, Ontario School District Superintendent Linda Florence came to Clinton and asked what it would take to expand the bus service to the Boys & Girls Club to include all elementary schools, Clinton said. He and district transportation manager Don Dalton then sat down and worked out the logistics to incorporate May Roberts Elementary School among the city schools and then looked at modifying the Pioneer and Cairo routes to provide a stop at the Boys & Girls Club.
“We’re seeing how attendance turns out, and depending on attendance, we may have to modify what we have,” Clinton said.
Expanding the program was not very difficult to establish, requiring minor adjustments for each school, but it did require a commitment from the school district, Clinton said.
“It costs money to change and it costs money to add, but this is a worthwhile program that will benefit the community and benefit us,” Clinton said.
The expanded bus system is still in transition, but currently one bus — Bender’s — is servicing both May Roberts and Alameda, and students from Aiken Elementary School are dropped off on a regular bus route, but Dalton said, by next week, he would likely have the Aiken children transferred over to Bender’s bus, so one bus is transporting all city students. A bus from Cairo Elementary School made its first drop Friday, and soon there will be a bus route from Pioneer Elementary School.
Florence said she became familiar with the Boys & Girls Club working in the Culver School District and wholeheartedly supports the program. She said the decision to expand the bus service this year was prompted by a number of calls she received from parents asking about transportation from different schools. Florence said she called the Boys & Girls Club and asked if they could handle more kids, and they agreed.
“Well, it’s really good for our kids to have some safe place for them to go to after school that offers positive activities,” Florence said.
Kristi Wherry, Boys & Girls Club program manager, said, currently the club is averaging almost 90 children a day, mostly kindergarteners through fifth-grade. While she hasn’t seen too great an impact yet from the expanded bus system as it only started this week, they were excited to the school district was providing the service.
“I just see such growth and expansion with this, and it’s just very encouraging to have the school district provide this and see the importance of this as well,” she said.
Jessica Keller is the News Editor of the Argus Observer. She can be contacted at JessicaK@argusobserver.com. Check out more state, local and regional news at www.argusobserver.com
