With 121 more students enrolled this fall, growth has impacted Melissa High School planning and procedures, including three new bus routes.  Student learning and safety remains to be paramount with the increases.

Along with the new bus routes and students came a couple of small logistical matters and adjustments. For example, timeliness: buses were arriving late for pick up after school and occasionally drop off before school. Melissa ISD Head of transportation, Weston Bartlett, has been working to correct bus arrival and commuting, he said.

“The construction that we deal with here in our town creates unpredictability within our traffic patterns and that affects our ability to get around and be on time. Also, the logistics of the campuses affects our ability to be on time,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett and his team have been working very hard to resolve the issue. They are very open to new ideas.

“Another thing we’ve done is we’ve hired a router. She works on analyzing each route and determining the most efficient and safe way to deliver students home.”

Other school officials added input about student success and safety.

“The new bus pass system is an effort to provide another layer of safety for our students and it’s an effort to provide another layer of communication to our parents.

Administration and transportation are working very quickly and diligently to enroll new students while correcting the punctuality of the buses,”  Assistant Principal, Matthew Owens, said.

“As new students come in we have to adjust routes. When you put new students in with new schools and new bus drivers and new bus routes there’s bound to be growing pains,” Owens said.

Although buses are arriving late for drop off in the morning, student class time is not lost, teachers said.

“All together I have had five students late to class because of the buses. The times that the kids were late they were late by three minutes and I don’t think three minutes makes or breaks the student,” Jenna Glory, ASL teacher, said.