Hillsboro CUSD No. 3 in southern Illinois uses four minivans and two 14-passenger activity buses as the smaller vehicles are easier to maneuver in and out of parking lots.
various situations such as a sick child, student behav- ior removal or missed bus situations,” said Director of Transportation Daryn Morris. With an occupancy limit of seven including the driver,
they’re also used in McKinney-Vento situations and for small field trips. He said the vehicles have proven useful, although staffing challenges can be a limiting factor. “They’re effective when we have enough staff to use them in emergencies,” Morris noted. “We haven’t routed all of the vehicles because of logistical issues in coverage of all the routes with absenteeism.” Hillsboro CUSD No. 3 in southern Illinois uses four
minivans and two 14-passenger activity buses for midday special needs routes, childcare and alternative school routes, and sports trips. The vehicles have been useful for many purposes, noted Adam Gregg, the dis- trict’s transportation director. “The smaller vehicles are much easier to maneuver in and out of parking lots for daily work-study runs,” he said. “We have many small groups that travel throughout
the day that a full-size bus is not needed for and would be essentially a waste.” The same logic is applied to transporting small sports teams such as tennis, golf and cross country that do not need a full-size bus but still may travel an hour or more for events. Use of MPVs eliminates the need to pull a bus and driver off a regular route. “They’re also great for groups like choir and [Future
Farmers of America] that take overnight and weekend trips,” Gregg added. “It not only frees up a driver and a bus, but it saves the district a lot of money and gives the group the freedom to move around freely.” MPVs operated by St. Charles R-6 School District in Missouri, like Hillsboro operating near St. Louis, are em- ployed for conducting road evaluations on bus drivers, accident response, bus stop observations, and general district needs. Coaches may access them for driving one or two athletes to events such as a golf match, and administrators and teachers also use them to attend out- of-town conferences. “They’re extremely effective,” said Stanley Fowler, the
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