Following the results of a recent survey of parents of fourth, fifth and sixth-grade students, fifth-graders will no longer ride on elementary school buses.
Instead, the students–who are considered middle school students at Saucon Valley–will ride on buses with other middle school students.
Middle school principal Ken Napaver discussed the survey and the reasoning for putting fifth-graders on buses with older students at Tuesday’s Saucon Valley School Board meeting.
“The fifth-graders don’t feel they are part of the middle school and they don’t feel they’re part of the elementary school,” Napaver told the board.
He said putting them on buses with other middle school students will promote “continuity” and “bring the fifth grade completely into the middle school.”
He acknowledged some resistance to the idea from parents, some of whom have expressed concerns about their children riding the bus with older, bigger students.
Napaver said many of the negative survey responses received came from parents who either want fifth grade to be moved back to the elementary school or didn’t seem to understand that they are already part of the middle school.
Furthermore, he said disciplinary statistics show that there have been more problems involving fifth-graders “messing around” with little kids on elementary school buses than younger students riding upper class buses.
A total of 224 parents responded to the survey, with about 42 percent of respondents being fourth grade parents and about the same number being fifth grade parents. Only a small number of sixth grade parents responded.
Napaver said 67 percent of respondents said they would be comfortable with their child riding the bus with upperclassmen; something he noted some Saucon Valley students who ride buses to parochial schools already do.
“There is a lot of emotion around this issue,” said school board member Cedric Dettmar, who urged Napaver to perform informal outreach with parents who may have concerns about the change, and to address those concerns.
Napaver said he would.
He noted that fifth-graders will sit at the front of the buses, closest to the drivers.
“I know it will be successful,” he said of the new school bus grouping.
