Important Information from the Gunter ISD Transportation Department
Due to time changes and student growth in our district, we will be making some adjustments to accommodate our bus riders in the best possible way. Please read the entire document so that you will be informed of our new system.
The GISD school day schedule for the 2021 – 22 school year will be as follows:
• Gunter Elementary School – 7:45 to 3:15
• Gunter Middle and High Schools – 8:10 to 3:45
RIDING THE BUS
All bus riders MUST be registered prior to riding the bus. Students attempting to ride a bus who are not registered will be sent to the office to call parents for pick up. To register your child, please visit our website and find transportation under the department link. Only registered bus riders will be allowed on the bus. If your child has a friend going home with them, please make arrangements to pick them up at school. Friends will not be allowed to ride with a registered rider.
GENERAL BUS ROUTE INFORMATION
We will be running 5 morning routes. The bus your child will be riding will be posted soon. Due to an increased number of riders in the afternoon, we will be running 6 afternoon routes; which means your student may not be riding the same bus in the afternoon as they ride in the morning.
MORNING BUS ROUTE INFORMATION
Our morning route schedule will be very similar to last year. With a lower number of riders in the morning than the afternoon, we are able to pick up all age levels at once.
The bus will drop off students at their respective campus at the following times:
GES – 7:10 | GHS – 7:15 | GMS – 7:20
Times are approximate as travel time may vary due to traffic levels
AFTERNOON BUS ROUTE INFORMATION
This information is BRAND NEW TO OUR DISTRICT, SO PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.
Buses will be running two-tiered afternoon routes. The first group to be dropped off will be the elementary students, and the second group to be dropped off will be middle and high school.
What does two-tiered mean? Our buses will run some of our routes twice. If your home is on a two-tiered route, students from the elementary school will be dropped off at their homes before the other two campuses. 98% of our students will be on a two-tiered route system. The only GES riders who will stay on the bus for the 2nd drop off are in an area further away from the school. These are locations that our buses cannot reach before having to return to pick up the middle and high school students at 3:45.
ALL GES riders that are assigned to be dropped off during our first tier will need someone home between 3:18-3:40 PM. We realize that some of our families might need to make other arrangements since older siblings are still in school. We wanted to give you plenty of notice to make these arrangements.
All GMS and GHS will be released from school at 3:45, they will load the 2nd tier route, and should be home by 4:20.
BENEFITS OF A TWO-TIERED ROUTE
• Helps us to alleviate the overcrowding on buses.
• Eliminates the idling time we spend waiting for the secondary campuses to release
• Makes our buses safer by shortening the time our kiddos are on the bus
We will be posting routes soon showing the pickup areas for each route.
Please make sure you register your children for the bus on the Gunter ISD website. Go to Departments > Transportation and click on “Bus Registration Form”. This will send a notification to the Transportation Coordinator that a new rider has been added.
If you have any questions, please email Nicole Mann at nmann@gunterisd.org.
Mark your calendars for the 1st day of the new school year! We will see all of your smiling faces back on campus August 18th!
