Coronavirus: Districts work to prevent potential exposure on school buses

KETTERING — Parents all over the Miami Valley are concerned about their children being exposed to COVID-19 on buses going to and from school.

Today, News Center 7′s John Bedell talked to one of our area’s largest districts about how they plan to sanitize buses for students between routes.

For our local districts, getting ready for the new school year is an ever-changing challenge in the COVID-19 era.

“You can kind of start looking at one perspective and then the next day, something else can come in and totally change it out,” said David Neal, Assistant Transportation Supervisor for Kettering City Schools.

Neal is one of the people at the district tasked with keeping kids safe and health on the buses that are used for at least two routes each day.

In Kettering, the insides of the buses will be cleaned and sanitized with a spray between routes.

“We have a sanitizing, disinfectant solution that we’ll be disinfecting the buses with and that is CDC approved, so it is safe,” Neal said. “So that’s what we’ll be using to make sure they are clean and safe for the children as well as the staff.”

Students in Kettering were already required to wear a mask on the bus even before Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced his expanded mask order impacting K-12 students at school on Tuesday.

Aside from masking up on the bus, Kettering students will have access to a machine that’ll dispense hand sanitizer as they get on and off the bus.

Social distancing guidelines will mean two students to a seat. And siblings from the same household will sit together.

Also in Kettering, students will have assigned seating on their buses to make contact tracing easier if there’s a positive test for COVID-19.

Neal and district Supervisor of Transportation Supervisor, Todd Silverthorn, said all the same bus sanitizing steps will also be in place for any of the district’s athletic teams that take bus trips for games or competitions.

“We just want to make sure we keep our children and our staff as safe as possible,” Neal said. “So that they can be able to go back to school and be safe and healthy.”

The first day of school in Kettering is September 8 for grades 1-10, September 9 for 11th and 12th graders, and September 14 for Kindergarten and Preschool students.

As of today, Kettering City Schools families will have one of two options for the new school year: in-person or online classes.

Cox Media Group