What if buses are late or canceled?
Curbside Pickup
If/when bus routes are canceled due to driver shortages, please know your child will go to curbside for afterschool pick up. When a canceled bus is reinstated for the afternoon run, your child will then ride the bus home, unless you have submitted a change. When buses are running late and you choose to pick up curbside, please email us at MESOffice@nthurston.k12.wa.us to let us know your intentions, otherwise we will be supervising students until the bus arrives. To help us move traffic through quicker, here are a few things that will help:
- Hang the Car Tag we provided from the rearview mirror. If you don't have one, stop by the office to pick up one or write how many students you are picking up and their last name on a piece of paper. Display this on your dashboard, or hold it up as you approach our staff in the curbside lanes.
- If you are carpooling, include the names for all students.
- As you approach the pickup location, please pull as far ahead as possible. This allows us to load more students at a time and keep the lines moving better.
We have staggered pick-up times in order to keep the traffic flowing during dismissal times. Please do your best to arrive at the time listed for your oldest child.
- Kindergarten: 2:30
- First - Fourth Grade: 2:35
- Fifth Grade: 2:40
Morning Drop-off
We unload three cars at a time in the right curb-side lane. Once you come to a stop, you may unload your child/children on the right side of your car closest to the fence. Students walk along the fence line to the cross walk.
In the left lane, we can unload more cars at a time. Students exit cars on the left side of the car and walk on the sidewalk to the cross walk. Whichever lane you end up in, please do not have your children walk in the middle of traffic between cars. The far right lanes are reserved for buses only. Please follow the flow of the curbside traffic.
*We appreciate your patience as we navigate through these challenging times.