New plan in place to transport Revere athletes

by Sheldon Ocker

Aug 13 board of education work session

A new plan to transport all Revere sports teams to road games on school buses has shown positive results.

Revere schools Treasurer Rick Berdine and the transportation department staff began testing the idea last spring when all but two spring sports trips (postponed by rain) used school buses to get to and from their venues.

Consequently, Berdine plus the transportation and athletic department staff met at the end of the spring season to expand the program.

“Now that we’ve done this, we’re going to make sure we do it for fall and winter as well,” Berdine said at the meeting. “The first two weeks of [the current] fall season in August, we had 37 trips to get out. We were able to accommodate every single one of them with our drivers.”

The goal is not only to use school buses for high school varsity and junior varsity teams, but to use school vehicles for all teams at Revere Middle School.

“Middle school kids can’t drive, so they have to rely on parents,” Berdine said. “There’s no safer means of transportation than the yellow bus. We want our kids on yellow buses to the extent that we can.”

Enough drivers

For the past few years, a shortage of bus drivers has been a common problem locally and elsewhere. Revere, however, started the school year without having to look for drivers, after hiring a new one.

Berdine took time to praise the transportation department for “doing a great job in serving our families and students. We are totally staffed with all routes covered.”

New Superintendent Dan White, participating in his first meeting, said there has been a change in the way parents are notified about bus pickup and return times.

“In the past, we’ve posted these bus routes to our website,” he said. “We’re not doing that this year.” Instead, every household received an email, which they should have been received by Aug. 16.

In other action

• Board member Kasha Brackett was assigned as delegate and board member Natalie Rainey as alternate to the Ohio School Board Association annual business conference at the Greater Columbus Convention Center Nov. 10-12.
• The regular meeting of the school board was rescheduled to Aug. 27, moving it back one week. ∞