Each day 2,800 children utilize the Bozeman School District bus system. The coordination of the buses is a collaborative effort between parents, the transportation coordinator, contract manager and bus driver.
Children are picked up at dropped off at the location(s) designated by their parents. Depending on where you live and the proximity to the school your child attends, the bus system will work in a variety of ways.
Elementary Students:
Morning
The mission of the school district transportation department is to get as many students to their school on their “home” bus without transferring. However, due to the distance between home and school, some children do transfer buses.
Many children are picked up at their designated stop and taken to a transfer location. The morning transfers are at Bozeman High School and Sacajawea Middle School. Students exit their “home” bus and get on a transfer bus that will take them to their school. This is done because many students do not attend their “home” school. At each transfer site, there are aides to monitor the site, however, kids will not be individually taken to their transfer bus. It is the parent’s responsibility to educate their children of the transfer routine.
You are welcome to make a tag for their backpack. The more information the aides have available, the easier the transfer will be. The aides wear green vests and will be monitoring the transfer. Drivers are always in direct contact with the dispatcher at First Student and can contact them if a student forgets what bus they ride or happens to get on the wrong bus.
Afternoon
Students will get on their assigned bus at their school. A few buses go directly on route fro the schools in the afternoon, however the majority of buses go from the schools to the high school. These are referred to as transfer buses. All of the buses lineup in four groups along 11th avenue. Buses lineup in the same group each day, but can be in a different order in each group. You can download the High School bus line up here.
When the transfer bus has reached the high school, students will exit their transfer bus and locate their “home” bus.
- Middle School Students:
- Depending on where you live, your student will either transfer as described above, or be dropped directly at their school.
High School Students:
Taken directly to the High school in the morning and picked up at the High School in the afternoon.
Any route or address changes should can be faxed or e-mailed directly to Vance Ruff, Transportation Coordinator. A note to the bus driver, school secretary or principal will not be accepted. Passengers may not board or depart from the bus at a stop other than their own without prior completion of a liability release form. These requests will only be considered if space is available. No passenger will be allowed to ride any bus other than the one they are registered to ride unless it is approved by the school district. A note from the parent is not adequate.
All registrations may have up to a minimum one-week waiting period before being able to ride the bus. This gives the Transportation Coordinator, bus contractor and driver adequate time to make sure the designated stop is assigned and added to the route.
Friday Early Release:
Every Friday Kindergarten through 3rd grade students are released from school at 2:10. Almost ALL K-3 students riding home at the early release time on Fridays will ride the same bus as they do every other day of the week. These buses will make two rounds on Fridays and in order to get back to their respective schools in time for the second round, there are limits to how far out these early routes can go.
Early release students who need to transfer buses will be loaded at their elementary school and taken to BHS where they will meet their "home" bus . This is a small transfer of about 9 buses and there will be monitors there to assist.