Why Lexington 1 elementary school kids are waiting for the bus at 6 a.m.

Despite the glow of streetlights in the neighborhood, it’s pitch black around the Saluda River Club neighborhood as 7-year-old Hayden Hindman waits for the school bus each morning.

The girl’s mom, Vanessa Hindman, drives her to the bus stop in a golf cart. They get there at 6 a.m. When the bus arrives at about 6:05, the second-grader gets on, carrying her pink backpack, and heads to Meadow Glen Elementary School.

To make this schedule work, the Hindmans have to get up at 5:25 each weekday morning.

“It’s a lot of coaxing to get (her) up in the morning,” Hindman said.

Last year, when the bus arrived at their stop later, they were able to get up at about 5:50 a.m. But after the first week of school this year, officials at Lexington 1 school district announced an earlier route for elementary school students.

The reason for the change? Bus drivers have to make another route to pick up middle or high school students after collecting the elementary kids.

“In this situation with the area around Meadow Glen Elementary School being such a high traffic area, when the bus route began using its original times of pickup, the driver was unable to complete both routes and get all the students to school on time,” officials said in a statement posted on the school district’s website.

Also, school officials said, the district isn’t getting what it needs from the S.C. Department of Education. The department funds and regulates school bus systems across the state – and recently removed 14 of Lexington 1’s school buses and replaced them with buses that carry fewer students.

“The district believes it needs at least 20 more buses – a conservative estimate – in order to adequately serve its students and their families,” officials said in the Lexington 1 statement.

Some buses unfilled

Ryan Brown, spokesman for the Department of Education, said state officials did a head count on five Lexington 1 buses on Aug. 25. That count showed buses were running with anywhere from 26 to 63 fewer students than capacity.

“Clearly, you can see by those numbers, there is not a shortage of buses,” Brown said. “There is a shortage of students riding the buses.”

That might be caused by traffic volume and pickup times, Brown said. The school district switched to its current 6:05 a.m. pickup after announcing one even earlier – at 5:50 in the morning. He said he hopes the change will make it easier for parents to get their kids onto the bus.

“In areas of high growth and with new schools being built it can take a month or two in order to get the best routes and subsequent pickup times set,” Brown said.

State education officials removed 14 of the district’s buses. Brown said that was part of the ongoing process of retiring old buses and swapping them for newer ones. More new buses will be rolled out across the state between October and December.

Parents wonder: Why aren’t older students picked up first?

Mary Beth Hill, spokeswoman for the school district, said all of Lexington 1’s elementary schools start classes earlier than its middle and high schools.

“You would almost wonder why they wouldn’t reverse it and have high school start earlier,” Hindman said last week, after seeing her daughter board the bus.

Compounding the problem is that Lexington 1 and districts across the state have difficulty attracting enough bus drivers, Brown said.

Carpool alternative

Some parents, rather than waiting on pickup times to fluctuate, had to change their transportation plans as soon as earlier times were announced. Garrick and Jill Messer, who have a first-grader and second-grader going to Meadow Glen, have taken to carpooling their two girls with another family.

“You have to get them up a little after 5 in the morning and they don’t get home until 3 o’clock,” Garrick Messer said. “You’re asking them to stay awake and function and behave for 10 hours. It’s just not practical.”

But the pickup times aren’t just of concern to parents. Harvey Watson, who has a first-grader going to Meadow Glen, said the earlier bus times mean more people will switch to driving their kids. That means more vehicles on the roads and more traffic congestion.

“You say there’s bad traffic, and you run the buses early, but you run them so early you’re creating more traffic,” Watson said.

This isn’t the only school district experiencing issues on the bus this year.

A 17-year-old was charged with misdemeanor assault after officials said he used the hand of someone else to slap a 5-year-old girl on a school bus in Bamberg County, The Associated Press reported. The girl and the teen were riding on the same bus because the 1,400-student district doesn’t have enough vehicles, officials said.

This story was originally published September 13, 2016 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Why Lexington 1 elementary school kids are waiting for the bus at 6 a.m.."