Quote:
Originally Posted by MechEng83
My question to you all is: What is your school district policy on use of school busses, and what do you typically do for transportation to events?
Thanks.
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Our school district doesn't actually own any conventional school buses-- as I understand it, they contract it out to a local business partner which takes care of storing all the buses and supplying drivers and all that-- they work very closely for insurance and safety reasons, but ultimately the district doesn't own the buses, and as such we can't use them (even the small ones).
It does, however, own several white runner vans (one of our team members calls them stalker vans, because they're plain white with tinted windows), which district employees are allowed to drive-- thus, for some offseason events, one of our "faculty advisors" will sometimes obtain one of these vehicles (they have some very oddly specific rules, however). Just as often, however, we have our parents/booster club organize carpooling. For local events, such as the North Star Regional, we will often pay for a school bus in the morning, so that we keep everyone together initially, and then have students carpool back with parents and mentors.
For long-distance stuff (Lake Superior or World Championships), we'll often use a charter bus, which is easier for us to do since we often have a bus full of people to split the cost on (literally, we've had trips where there isn't a single empty seat).
Echoing lohke's sentiment, it may be possible for you to register some of your mentors with the district (that's why I said "faculty advisors"-- two of them are just parents, one of which has never had a student in the school district). This lets them check out the runner vans as well as gives them keys to the building. You may want to check with your school/school district's administration to see what you can work out with them, as I'm sure they'd love to make sure their robotics team can be as successful as possible!