Letters on new policy on youngsters' bus dropoffs going out this week

Melissa Shaw with daughter Aerianna, prior to the first day of school. (Courtesy photo)

ROCHESTER - Rochester School Superintendent Michael Hopkins said on Tuesday he is moving forward swiftly to implement a new district-wide policy that will allow for parents to require a parent be seen at their residence by bus personnel before dropping off a child. The policy would apply to children in grades kindergarten through second grade.

The moves comes in the wake of two incidents since school began in which a child was mistakenly dropped off at a residence where no parent was home.

Hopkins said letters will be sent out by the end of the week that will apprise parents of the new policy. He said parents of students in the three grades will be able to instruct the school whether they want their child to be kept on the bus or dropped off if no parent is visible at their home. The previous policy only applied to kindergardeners.

Hopkins said Special Services and the bus company are both amenable with the switch, which will be fully implemented as soon as the parents have a chance to make a decision and let the school know which list they want their child to be on.

"This will be implemented as soon as we get everybody on board," Hopkins said Tuesday.

The drive for the new policy began after Rochester mom Melissa Shaw said her daughter, Aerianna, 6, was supposed to be taken from the William Allen School to the Strafford YMCA for an afterschool program the parents had signed up and completed paperwork for, but was instead dropped off at home alone the first day of school.

Shaw said that when paperwork the Y bus driver gave to school personnel differed with school records, William Allen School Principal Lynn Allen made a spot decision and opted to put Aerianna on her home bus route.

The result was the youngster was let off at an empty, locked house on Old Dover Road where she sat on the steps waiting for her parents for two hours.

A similar mixup happened with another Rochester 6-year-old a week later.

"I am really really happy," Shaw said today when she learned of Hopkins' expedited policy initiative. "I thought it was going to take a long tiime. This is great."