Dear Medway families,
As you may recall, prior to the start of school, we sent out and asked families to complete a transportation survey so that we had a clear understanding of the number of students who would require “big yellow bus” transportation. This was an important piece of information as our buses are limited to a much lower capacity of students to ensure adherence to safety guidance. It is important to remember that the organization of our schools, along with the adoption of our health and safety protocols, should not create close contacts within school, except on the bus.
Now that we have a few weeks of experience, we have noted that many of our buses have many fewer students than they can transport within the newly established guidelines. It is important that we gain an accurate understanding of the transportation needs of our students. Gaining this understanding will help us accomplish the following goals:
- Improve transportation efficiency
- Potentially eliminate double-runs that were created
- Allow us to bring more students back to school more fully
- Allow us to respond to the many requests we have for changes/adjustments to transportation
- Allow us to effectively and accurately conduct contact tracing should there be a positive case of COVID-19 of a student who uses transportation
In order to accomplish this, we are asking that families who are eligible for bus transportation, to affirm their need for bus transportation. School committee policy defines eligibility for transportation for our elementary schools at one mile and for our middle and high school at 1.5 miles.
Unlike this summer, if we do not receive a response from a family, we will assume that bus transportation is not needed. We are asking families to complete the survey, linked below, no later than October 23rd. Also, please note that we are not able to manage individual requests for “one-offs” or special requests at this time. We ask for, and continue to appreciate, your understanding.
Again, it is critical that we receive a response from any family with children who will use bus transportation now and into the anticipated future this school year. If there has been a change in your families’ status in regards to transportation since you filled out the original survey, please use this one to update your status, if eligible. If we do not receive a response by October 23, your child will not have an assigned seat on the bus and will not be allowed to utilize bus transportation.
Please know that it will take a few weeks to reconcile the survey information. Unfortunately, no individual transportation change requests will be granted until we have clarified information on ridership. We continue to appreciate your partnership as we manage this most unique year. Any questions may be directed to Don Aicardi at daicardi@medwayschools.org.
Please complete the survey here. Families should complete one survey for each child.
Sincerely,
Don Aicardi
Director of Finance