Transport students for two districts
IMLAY CITY — The doors for the 2023-2024 school year have swung open for many districts in the area as another summer vacation for students and staff comes to an end.
While preparation for students returning has been underway for months, so too has the work on transportation for those that chose to ride a bus.
Some of the Imlay City school buses pull double duty, transporting students for Imlay City and Dryden.
Imlay City Superintendent Stu Cameron took time to explain what the district does regarding transportation, including providing services for the Dryden school district. “For our daily, typical school runs, we have 18 buses on the road, including Dryden buses and special education service runs, and an additional 6-8 buses are on the road daily for outside trips like athletics, field trips, etc.”
Cameron said. He continued by saying, “Additionally, we run two sessions of students to Ed Tech during the day-146 students from IC and 48 students Dryden. These students take part in Career and Technical courses and/or early college programming. In addition to our Imlay City Schools transportation, our district also provides busing to Dryden Schools- they contract with us for transportation services,” Cameron pointed out.
Typically, school buses transport the majority of students in rural districts thousands of miles throughout the school year and it often makes for a crowded drop off area for vehicles and buses.
Many districts have developed a bus loop or drop-off location away from parents or others dropping off students.
Imlay City buses transport nearly 760 students with another 95 from Dryden being taken to classes. Supt. Cameron said Imlay City buses transport a number of students with special needs to the center program at the LISD/Ed Tech and to other consortium programs (Almont, Dryden and Imlay City) that involves another 28 students.
Imlay City transportation has a total of 27 units, including all buses, spares/parts buses, plus a school van that is used for athletics and small group trips.
The transportation budget does not come cheap for any district and Imlay City is no exception.
Supt. Cameron said the Imlay City district has budgeted $1.72 million for transportation while Dryden estimates to spend $230,000 for the contracted services from Imlay City.
Email requests for information from Almont and Capac went unanswered.
