Transportation

Hours of operation are 5:30 AM to 5:00 PM.  However, members of our team will remain in the office until every bus has returned to the lot, or until all of the drivers communicate that all students have been dropped off and all the buses are empty.

The Transportation office/bus lot is located at 5025 Enterprise Dr. which is a quarter mile north of Main St. off of Mason Montgomery Rd. Transportation forms may be dropped off here, and parents may come in to look for lost items in our Lost and Found barrels.

Mason City Schools hires quality people to become school bus drivers.  Candidates must have an excellent driving record and pass a pre-employment physical and drug screen.  All candidates must have an FBI and BCI background check.  Once they have met those requirements they receive a minimum of 25 hours of on board instruction from certified instructors in addition to 12 hours of classroom instruction from the Ohio Department of Education.

All drivers receive yearly in-service training, must pass a yearly physical and every six years go through a recertification process and have a BCI background check.

Parents may access their child’s bus information via Stopfinder.  After July 5, tentative bus stop locations will be available online.  After August 9, bus stops will be finalized and bus numbers and times will be available.

In order to ensure that bus drivers can successfully and safely drive their routes at the beginning of the year, drivers receive routes ahead of time to practice. Consequently, it is important to have all changes into our system at least two weeks before school begins so that routes are properly built and practiced.

During the transportation freeze, no changes will be made to a student’s transportation. 

If parents know that they will be utilizing child care outside the home, a Transportation Change Request Form must be submitted to the Transportation office prior to the freeze. These forms are also available online and may be submitted via mail, dropped off in person or emailed to MCSTransportation@masonohioschools.com

There are no Ohio laws that require a bus stop to be visible from a student’s residence.  In Ohio, students may walk up to one half mile from their residence to a bus stop.  MCS limits this distance for PK and K students and attempts are made to pick up and drop them off closer to their residence because they must be supervised and picked up by a responsible adult.  Older elementary students may be asked to walk to a corner stop on their street.  As students enter Mason Intermediate and Mason Middle Schools, stops are further from a student’s residence.  High School routes may have only one or two designated stops per neighborhood.  

Some parents take turns walking each other’s children to the bus stop.  This is an opportunity to teach safe walking habits and add to families’ peace of mind. Walking with a neighbor is more enjoyable for students; the Buddy System is always a good idea. Some parents view the bus stop as a social opportunity to meet with other families.

Buses are large vehicles and there are many blind spots. To ensure safety, after students get off at their bus stop, they should go to their Designated Place of Safety (DPS) and remain there where the driver can account for them and know they are not in the Danger Zone, before the bus leaves the stop.

If students need to cross the street to get to their Designated Place of Safety (DPS) they must watch the driver for a signal to cross the street, stop at the edge of the bus to check traffic for themselves, and then proceed to their place of safety and wait there until the bus pulls away.

To ensure the safety of all bus riders, Ohio law requires students to be at their bus stop, in their Designated Place of Safety (DPS), 5 minutes prior to the arrival of the bus.  This allows the driver to account for students as they approach the stop.  Students who run from their house or a parent’s car cannot be seen by the driver.  This can have a serious impact on a student’s safety.  Students should dress appropriately for weather conditions.

Every attempt is made to place a student at a stop closest to his/her residence.  However if a parent chooses to have their student utilize a different stop, parents may submit a Transportation Change Request Form to a different, existing stop.  A new stop will likely not be created on an existing route.

Bus stops are designed with the big picture in mind for how routes are run and to accommodate multiple students.  Buses do pass students’ homes in the course of their routes; it is not feasible nor efficient to make home stops for students.  On main arteries, roads with more than 2 lanes or a high speed limit , students will be granted a home stop. A new stop will likely not be created on an existing route.

Buses may run late for various reasons; traffic conditions, mechanical breakdowns etc. If a bus is going to be more than 15 minutes late, a notification will be sent to the Stopfinder app on your phone, alerting the families of those students.  A bus will always be sent to cover a route, and students will be brought safely to school.