Rockwood Bus Driver Requests Changes

Sandra Christeson called herself "an old bus driver" at the Jan. 19 board of education meeting, yet her energy level and passion for the district displayed a young spirit. This experienced school bus driver, who referenced 44 years of driving, stepped up to the podium to request some changes be considered while district representatives and patrons are discussing needs and improvements to physical Rockwood structures due to the proposed bond measure, called .

Christeson said she found her dream home in in 1971, and has been driving buses in the Rockwood area ever since. Based on her years of manuevering around Rockwood properties, she said there are frequent bottleneck issues with many of the school's parking lots.

Cramped parking lot bus areas contributed to a minor accident she recently had in the parking lot, she said. Buses transporting early childhood and activity students were all in the same area at the same time, which she said caused her inability to move her bus without "bumping a car."

She asked board directors if they've ever been on the parking lot at dismissal time. She said there are no really safe places to operate for the three activity buses and the five-plus special buses parked there.

"In trying to satisfy coaches, we move to get out, but there isn’t proper parking allowances. At Marquette, we cannot bend buses around the corner. It's the same at Lafayette," she said.

Christeson recommended changing school dismissal times to have room for buses to park for activities. "When other school bus drivers bring teams over, it’s a mess," she said.

She also suggested vehicles found in the "no parking" designated slots actually be ticketed, because the space they occupy is often needed for the buses to ease around the lot.

She said early out, also called early dismissal, days at Crestview Middle School in Ellisville are "bad and scary" because parents and students cross the parking lot at the same time buses to get to the other school building. Again, she suggested different dismissal times for bus routes and parent drivers.

"If you could put signs on sidewalks for buses-only parking, that also would help," she said.