Starkville Bus Routes

Starkville School District is making changes to bus routes to maintain safety on buses.

Shuffling schedules and re- designing classrooms, local school districts have been making a lot of changes to keep students healthy when they come back to school..

But there's another big challenge - keeping them safe on the ride to and from the schoolhouse// our stephanie poole hops on the bus for the story// the starkville- oktibbeha consolidated school district is mapping transportation plans and things are looking a little different.

Transportation director kelvin gibson says they are going through a checklist before inviting students back on the bus.

" we're going to go through all of the covid-19 recommendations pertaining to the cleanliness and disinfections.

A normal day for us, which isn't normal anymore, a normal day is going is to make sure our buses are already swept clean and disinfected."

Temperatures will be checked before loading and after each ride, a fogger will be used to eliminate germs. " it will cover all the areas of the bus.

Place that we call high tough areas.

Also, we're going to be using hand sanitizers as they load the bus.

We're going to have bus monitors that's going to be passing out masks to keep every one safe."

One of the biggest concerns is 'how' children will be seated.only one child is allowed per seat, however, family members in the same household are able to sit together.

" we will start loading a children here up against the window then will place another child here up against the window.

And will continue to do it throughout the bus as we load and as they reach the school building will start unloading from the front and what that is going to do that's going to continue that space in a safe environment of social distancing on the school bus."

Gibson says over 20 routes are listed for pickup.

He's developing a safe way to get students to their classes.

" that will allow me to actually to consolidate some routes maybe or be creative with the way we transport.

Some areas are a high volume of students in apartment complexes and things like that but that challenge can be met by trying to consolidate some of the routes and really have a defining numbers of students we'll actually be working with."

Reporting in oktibbeha county,stephanie poole, wcbi news.

The district is still doing a head count on how many students will be riding buses// gibson is encouraging parents to keep students at home if they are showing virus symptoms.éé the district will continue to release more details as they are developed.éé take vo off