Evacuation Throws School Transportation System A Curve

By Tanjua Damon

School buses were already in route to pick up Newtown Middle School students Tuesday morning for the last day of school when the district transportation office was notified that there was a suspicious object at the middle school on Queen Street.

That call was answered close to 8:30 am by transportation director Mary Kelly, which sent her into a “plan of operation” mode figuring out what needed to be done first to accommodate approximately 1,200 students that attend the middle school. School starts at 9:14 am for the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

The transportation office became the control center, according to Ms Kelly, as communication took place over radios and cell phones with bus drivers as to what was going to take place. Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed directed the middle school students to be brought to the high school, where they would be organized and sent home.

“I believe today went very well. Can we improve? Definitely,” Ms Kelly said. “Maybe there is a better way to do things in an evacuation, but overall the situation was handled smoothly.”

Many students had begun to be dropped off to school or had already walked to get to school early with the excitement of the last day. Bus drivers not working at the time called in or stopped by the transportation office at Fairfield Hills to see what they could do to help.

Once students arrived at the high school a system was set up to organize students by elementary school districts so that they could be loaded on buses and brought home in a timely fashion. Because of the upheaval in the transportation schedule, afternoon kindergarten students at Sandy Hook and Head O’ Meadow were unable to attend the last day of school. Middle school eighth graders went back to school on Wednesday to sign yearbooks and enjoy a talent show for a few hours.

“The bus drivers work so well with each other. They were remarkably cooperative in our effort to bring the children home,” Ms Kelly said. “In order to reroute all the students to the high school much radio communication was necessary from the transportation office as well as the bus drivers.”

Ms Kelly sent out every bus that was available to help bring students to the high school. Several buses were sent to the former Grand Union to pick up several hundred students to be taken to the high school. Twenty-four full-size buses were already out on their routes picking up children for school and were rerouted to the high school before taking the students back home.

“I listen to everything that is going on so I know where my buses are,” Ms Kelly said. “I evaluate the situation and disperse the buses to where they are needed.”

Ms Kelly was pleased with the hard work and dedication of the owner/operators of the buses. All the routes were back in order for the early dismissal schedule of the schools for the last day of school.

Ms Kelly has been the director of transportation for the school district for 14 years.