does your school have an activity bus?

[almburr]

I ask because at our school we do, as do all the area schools around us do. We have the traditional fleet of yellow buses, suburbans, and expeditions. Our activity bus is a big tour bus (like magical express) it has Tvs and really nice seats. It has the nick name of Moby Dick, its big and white with our school colors down the side. This bus is used for games, and field trips since we can travel well over 2hrs to a game. Field trip are about 3hrs away.

We went to the Denver zoo on Thursday for the K-3 field trip. We pulled in and there were a ton of big yellow buses. But as we were leaving we saw another school from our league was there with their big bus they had to travel 4 hrs that day one way.

I just kind of wondered how many schools out there have the tour buses? What area of the country are you from.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

When I was in high school, the school district did not own it's own buses like that, but we would sometimes get to ride in them when they chartered some for long trips.

 

[Ppufi]

Our district doesn't own one, sadly. They rent one for longer trips, like when the Jr. High kids go to Boston or D.C. or for the senior trip.

 

[golfgal]

Around here an activity bus would be the bus that picks kids up that stay after school for sports, homework, whatever and takes them home (5:00 is when the bus leaves). This is in the middle schools and high schools.

For sports teams/activities for the most part they take your typical yellow school bus for things that are close. Most of our sporting contests are less than 30 minutes away. For trips longer than an hour they will often take coach buses which they charter from a local bus company. This would be for things like when the Marching Band goes to St. Louis, which is an 8 hour drive in a car but about 12 hours for the buses because they stop to eat/bathroom breaks and for 180+ kids, it takes a while.

In our old town that was more isolated, if your trip was over an hour you got to ride on a coach bus.

 

[princessmom29]

Our activity busses are big yellow busses and some smaller 17 passenger busses. We use the small ones for taking kids to academic competitions because we never have more than 8-10. If we are traveling out of state, or more than a few hours away we have to rent busses like you are talking about. DD's school is a private school and they do the same.

 

[N&B'smom]

We don't have one that we OWN because frankly, it wouldn't get much use. Barely anyone even rides the bus to school the town is so small. We do get those buses for special events though, certainly not the kindergarten class trip (which is only about 30 min away). ALL of our class trips are within an hour so having that type of bus wouldn't be necessary PLUS they would need to own SEVERAL of them!

We do however use them for events like the band trip which I'm going to be going on with my DS10 in a couple weeks. We have a long bus ride ahead so they use those buses for that. They also used them when my DS10 and the band went on an overnight trip last December and it was a bit of a distance.

We are in southern NJ.

 

[taximomfor4]

in Ne ohio. Haven't seen any of those kind of buses. Neither my nieces' district, the district where dh teaches, nor my kids' district has any tour buses. Heck, they don't have expeditions or suburbans, either.

When I went on "Extra" trips (senior year to DC or whatever), the kids paid hundreds of $part of which was the chip-in to charter a nice bus. Other trips (3 hours to another city, for example) were done on a regular old yellow school bus. Heck, dd's orchestra went to contest and they rode in a couple of yellow buses. Also, for commencement, the kids have to meet at the high school and then ride in yellow buses to downtown Cleveland, for the ceremony. Can't say that I've ever heard of touring-style buses being owned by school districts!

 

[almburr]

I was just wondering how other schools were with thier buses. Every town in our area has one. I must have to do with the distance we travel.

 

[juligrl]

Around here an activity bus would be the bus that picks kids up that stay after school for sports, homework, whatever and takes them home (5:00 is when the bus leaves). This is in the middle schools and high schools.

For sports teams/activities for the most part they take your typical yellow school bus for things that are close. Most of our sporting contests are less than 30 minutes away. For trips longer than an hour they will often take coach buses which they charter from a local bus company. This would be for things like when the Marching Band goes to St. Louis, which is an 8 hour drive in a car but about 12 hours for the buses because they stop to eat/bathroom breaks and for 180+ kids, it takes a while.

In our old town that was more isolated, if your trip was over an hour you got to ride on a coach bus.

Same here - at least in the district I grew up in. I'm not sure what they have in the district we live in now. Seeing as they only provide one way transportation for kindergarteners (half day or all day) I would imagine they probably don't provide an activity bus. Don't get me started on that though...

 

[MK2thcleaner]

We have several, though I'm not sure if they have tv's as I've never been on one. I do know that they are more comfortable than a regular yellow bus, but the kids like to ride the charters when they go to Dallas. When the marching band travels to competitions in the fall they generally don't take them because there aren't enough to hold all 200 kids and some will get jealous.

South-central Kansas here!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

No, we just have plain, old, yellow school buses. Our area is full of field trip opportunities that are close by so it's not a problem for the kids to ride school buses. However, our 4th graders take a trip to our state capitol which is 2 hours away. Part of the fee for that trip covers nice tour buses that include restrooms and a DVD player. I chaperoned that trip last year and it was nice to have comfortable buses for that distance.

 

[PatsGirl]

Our district uses the ole' fashioned yellow buses for shorter trips (less than 2 hours) and parents pool $$ to pay for charter buses for anything longer than that. DD missed out on a recent field trip because they used a regular bus which had no bathroom of course. She refuses to go anywhere further than an hour away without access to a toilet. (TMI probably but she has an incredibly small bladder) And before I get flamed, do I think we should take charters everywhere because DD needs a bathroom, NO

 

[luvsJack]

The high school that dd will attend has one, they have since I was a student there. It painted in school colors. I think that when past buses have been retired, another one has been donated by alumni, it was also painted by alumni. Not sure who all uses it anymore but back in my day, it hauled the football, basketball and baseball teams to their games and the band to competition. We are the only school in our area that has a bus like this one.

 

[hereyago]

Well, up until this year, dd is in 6th grade. The schools would use their own yellow buses for field trips. They use their own buses twice a week for after school activities to take the kids who stay after, home.

Today, DD tells me that the field trip they will be going to right before school lets out will cost 20.00. Now here is the kicker: They just went on a field trip to a neighboring city for a couple hours and it was 3.00.

So this new field trip is about the same amount of driving time, they are hiring a charter bus. DD doesn't even want to go, it is to Jamestown, she went last year and the year before, not much has changed. for 20.00, they should be heading to somewhere the kids don't usually go and it should be for more than a couple hours.