With that being said, this serves as an excellent reminder to parents to always have a contingency plan in place in case you are stuck on the wrong side of a Mountain Road traffic jam. Do you have a neighbor or family friend or trustworthy high school student who you can contact immediately to meet your child at the bus stop?
[Side Note: did you know this AACPS policy? Children are not kept on the school bus when parents do not meet the school bus at the bus stop at the time of discharge. This includes kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students. If you are not able to greet your child at the bus stop, and you do not wish for your child to be discharged without adult supervision, you must make arrangements for another responsible adult to be at the bus stop or you may call Bodkin to ask that your child not to be placed on the bus. If you request that your child stay at school, you must make prompt arrangements for your child to be picked up at school.]
During last week’s traffic jam business, we were able to load three busses immediately and these busses were able to run their routes without any delay. There are 14 busses that serve our community. The order of busses that arrive at Bodkin changes daily. With limited telephone lines and limited staff to answer phones and to help with delayed dismissals, we need your help and support. Please call us if you are in a pinch, having trouble getting to a bus stop, etc., because we are here to help and we want to receive your phone call. But please refrain from calling Bodkin simply to report that there is an accident; to inquire about the status of your bus; to report that traffic is moving again; to announce you are stuck in traffic if it has no impact on your student’s dismissal/safety; to ask what is happening at our school. We mean this in the nicest way possible. But we really need your help so that our phone lines are open to parents who need to reach us because there is an emergency situation with their student, because there were several situations we worked very hard to resolve during the traffic jam. We also want your support and patience in these circumstances. Feel free to ask a friend or neighbor or to check your email or text message before calling the school. You might already have the information you are looking for.
Help us by having a plan in place before these traffic situations occur, (ie, where is a safe place your child can go and know the phone number of who you can call for help.). Please call us with the name of your child, the teacher’s name, the bus number they ride, and the updated dismissal plan after you have reached out to the back-up person. We love, love, love our Bodkin community and the support we consistently receive from so, so many! But unfortunately, we still had many families caught off guard by the accident’s impact at dismissal. Help us help you! We are all on the same team of student safety. We have almost 600 students to get home safely. What is your plan for next time?