K-12 grades on same buses for Washington County Schools next school year

WASHINGTON CO., Tenn. (WJHL) — Changes are coming to Washington County Schools’ bus routes for the upcoming school year. One of those changes is kindergarten through seniors in high school being able to ride the bus at the same time.

This, among other changes, has parents upset.

“I really don’t think my younger children need to be exposed to stuff like that,” said Grandview Elementary School parent Jack Smith.

Smith has students as young as six-years-old at Grandview Elementary.

“My six-year-old will be learning things that they really should not be learning at six years old because that’s things seniors in high school and everything are talking about and doing on the bus,” Smith said.

At the beginning of last school year, he was struggling to get a bus to pick up his students due to a bus driver shortage.

He said that issue was eventually resolved and his students were riding the bus with students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

“Which has honestly been a little bit of a problem with just the eighth graders, because [my children] are coming back home and saying things that they’re hearing on the bus,” Smith said. “And it’s causing problems.”

Living about a mile away from the elementary school, Smith said his kids are on the bus for 45 minutes.

That time may change with a recent school board change to uniform times for the system’s K-8 schools. Superintendent Jerry Boyd said half of the K-8 schools were already at 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The board approved this schedule for all K-8 schools.

“When you make those changes, any adjustments you make in a school schedule, a start ending time, and then even with the fluctuation of the number of students riding buses, you do make adjustments in bus routes,” said Boyd.

Boyd said this K-8 schedule change was not made because of bus routes and that regular adjustments are made to improve transportation services.

Also, Boyd said there are some buses in the school system that had K-12 on the same bus.

He said the goal is to have every student on a bus for an hour, but that time may fluctuate.

Boyd said there are resources in place for discipline on the bus.

“You structure your seating in the bus to ensure there’s some reasonable separation, but as far as, there’s still expectations for behavior,” said Boyd. “And anything that’s out of line, it will be dealt with.”

Boyd said buses also have continually updated security measures. Each bus has four cameras, but Smith said that is not enough.

“That doesn’t make a soundproof wall,” Smith said. “I mean that’s the only way you’re going to keep the younger kids from hearing what the older kids are talking about and doing is if you’ve got them in separate rooms.”

Smith said he hopes some of the logistics can be worked out regarding the amount of time students spend on the bus. He said he believes a bus only going to one school rather than multiple schools would help with this. He also hopes that changes are communicated.

Boyd said he expects the transportation department to work with each school through the summer and relay that information to parents.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.