Chippewa Valley Expects to Bus 10,500 Students on 450 Routes in 2012-13

With the first day of school less than a week away, employees in Chippewa Valley Schools’ Transportation Department are greasing the wheels, filling the tanks and crunching the final numbers for busing during the 2012-13 school year.

The district has employed 78 general education and special education bus drivers this year to transport around 10,500 students to and from 30 school buildings each day. This is more than 65 percent of the student population.

Chippewa Valley provides bus service to students living at least 1.5 miles from school and those students living in areas in which they would have to cross a main road to reach their school without the safety of a crossing guard or traffic signal. The district also provides transportation to special needs students to programs outside the district in Utica, Mount Clemens, Warren Consolidated, Warren Woods, Roseville, East Detroit and St. Clair Shores.

During the course of the school year, the Transportation Department estimates it will:

• Provide more than 3.95 million bus rides to students going to and from school and special events, including 1,900 field trips each year
• Travel more than 1.3 million miles transporting students to and from school
• Have at least 78 buses on the road daily transporting students to and from school
• Schedule students on some 450 bus routes servicing 2,800 bus stops
• Use more than 153,000 gallons of diesel fuel