Overflow of students led Lebanon Trail High School to be at full capacity, and any new students will be transferred to Independence High School. However, both sets of students share the same buses, with the Independence students being picked up and dropped off using both Independence and Lebanon Trail buses.
This delays both types of students in their commute times, as school ends at 4:25 and the buses depart at 5:00 PM. This causes a plethora of inconveniences for students, including overcrowding in morning and afternoon buses.
“The school is crowded, but it’s crowded as any high school would be because I can still get to my classes easily,” Vaishavi Pandey said. “I really notice overcrowding on the buses. However, I can still get through my daily routine without disturbances.”
While the school crowd may be dispersed, the same can’t be said for the bus.
“I feel like every time I get on the bus it’s really congested and everyone has to triple seat, and when three people are sharing a seat people have to sit in the aisle which is extremely unsafe,” Advika Singhal, a sophomore on Bus 17, said.
The congestion has affected many students in their daily lives, and so has the late arrival home.
“Late arrival home has affected me a lot,” Vaishavi Pandey, freshman on Bus 19, said. “I get home around 40 minutes after school has ended, and I can’t even do homework or take a nap because I’m stuck in the really hot bus.”
The bus gets students home almost an hour after school ends, which, according to many students, is an impractical scenario.
“I started reaching home at like 5:30-5:45 which I think is a huge waste of time, considering we’re in high school and we need every available minute to do homework, and reaching an hour later than when school ends is inconvenient,” Singhal said.
However, staying on the bus is still the most viable option for many.
“I will definitely stay on the bus,” Pandey said. “It’s an easy way of transport, but on days I have to be home early, because of the overflow, it’s not a good option. But regularly, I will continue riding the bus.”
On Thursday, August 24th, an email was sent out informing the community that the trip to Independence High is no longer necessary for picking up students, and buses will now be promptly leaving at 4:35 PM.
“I actually like how the overflow is now distributed between two schools, there’s actually less people here now than there were last year,” Christine Wilson, an LTHS counselor, said. “I believe that’s a solution that worked really well for our school, and finding a way to fix the bus scheduling aided with making the transition more seamless.”
Combatting an issue that impacted the daily routines of numerous students has led to a lower commute time and less crowding, and the issue has now been completely resolved.
