The quality of a student's experience on their way to school or home can have a large effect on her or his day at school, as well as the child's general comfort with his or her overall schooling experience.
The experience of the child's morning at home and trip to school sets the tone for the new school day. The experience of the child's return trip to home in the afternoon has much to do with how the student perceives the school day. If a student's ride to school is poor, s/he arrives to school agitated and off balance. The rest of the day can be an uphill climb. If the ride home is poor, it can eclipse all the good work the that student and teachers had done that day. This is why it is so important that we assure a quality experience for our bus riders every day at Woodland Heights.
After meeting with bus company managers last week to begin our cooperative work toward improving our busing situation for both students and drivers, this week we will be celebrating 'WHS Bus Safety Week'. During the week I'll be hosting a meeting for our school's bus drivers to discuss and 'tweak' our school's busing system, and support the further development of their student management skills. I'll also be visiting classes at WHS to make presentations that remind students of bus safety and behavior guidelines, and the importance of their following the guidelines without exception. We will likely begin an assigned seating system on our buses whereby students will be seated with their grade level and school peers (i.e., WHS kids with WHS kids, 1st Graders with 1st Graders).
In addition, we are investigating the possibility of implementing the common practice of installing video cameras on our buses to assist in maintaining a safe and appropriate riding climate for our students and drivers. In other school districts that I have been fortunate to serve, a video camera system has done much to encourage better conduct by everyone on the bus, has been helpful in the accurate and efficient investigation of bus disciplinary infractions, and has actually exonerated students wrongly accused of bus infractions. Placing video cameras on our buses would be an enormous benefit to everyone involved in the bus riding experience at WHS.
Stay turned for more details! As always, don't hesitate to contact me at school, or by email (ddobe@laconia.k12.nh.us) if I can answer any of your questions of be of service to you in any way.
Have a great week!
