LANSING, Mich. — We continue our series “Safely Back to School” and we take a look at one of the biggest challenges facing districts right now, what to do with school busses. With poor air circulation and no room to social distance health officials are worried that busses will be the perfect place for COVID-19 to spread, even eventually to students who don’t ride the bus, so Chris Conte is taking a closer look at some solutions, the could keep your kids safe
If the wheels on the bus go round and round then you could say the thoughts spinning in Cheryl Merritt's mind right now, are moving just as fast.
"I just want all the kids on the bus to stay safe and the drivers."
32 years as a bus driver.
She's driven in every kind of weather condition imagineable.
But this is the first time she's driven during a pandemic.
"Getting sick and I don’t want to get sick"
As she reflects on the year ahead Cheryl can only think about the virus.
She's 61-years-old and like drivers nationwide is terrified of catching COVID from kids on her bus.
"I don’t, I don’t want this, I’m not ready to die you know"
But perhaps the biggest challenges with school busses is trying to keep kids socially distant, while in a confined space.
When fully loaded with kids, most school busses fit about 77 students.
Cramming students into a bus though would be a perfect place for COVID to spread.
So the CDC is advising bus companies to have only one student per bench.
Taking some bus capacity down to about 12 kids.
Meaning school districts would need to run double, or triple the number of trips each day just to pick every child up.
David Strong, a school transportation expert says: "I just can’t imagine how we can do it, there’s only so much space on a bus"
He says even if schools wanted to run more busses, they couldn't because of a nationwide driver shortage.
So they're having to get creative with start times.
There’s just so many question and really no asnwers
Another concern, is that many kids won't follow social distancing or mask rules once they're on a bus.
As a result, many districts are adding bus monitors to routes.
And in an effort to help with air circulation, some states are requiring bus windows to be open year round.
"It doesn’t matter what you’re gonna do with kids once you get them to school, you have to get them there first"
As for Cheryl Merritt, she and other drivers are just preparing to be flexible.
So students can return safely back to school.
We should be alright, I hope.
And just a reminder, FOX 47 is airing a half hour special titled ‘safely back to school’ on Tuesday, August 4, at 7p
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