Since Aug. 15, students have been traveling to and from KCAL. The students leave for class from Timber Creek when the bell rings and they will leave KCAL 20 minutes before the bell rang for the end of that period. This, however, became a problem. Students would arrive to their next period at Timber Creek at least 15 minutes late. If a student was supposed to be in a fifth period class, they could miss the bulk of their learning time.
As Timber Creek is the farthest school from KCAL, the KCAL students had the most delay from the KCAL school to Timber Creek. With trains, traffic and construction, it can become difficult for the bus drivers to make their way around with good timing.
Teachers and students have both complained about this problem and the Timber Creek administration, KCAL administration and Keller ISD have all collaborated together to try and fix the problem.
James Johnson, one of the assistant principals, said, “We were very persistent. We were not happy that kids weren’t in class. But [we] had no one to blame but distance and time.”
Leslee Shepherd, the principal of KCAL, says that the KCAL classes take the biggest hit, in that they arrive 10 minutes late to class and leave 20 minutes early. She sees that there have been a lot of problems this year, and they have changed the time for fourth period classes, so the KCAL students leave 15 minutes earlier to try and make it to fifth period on time. Shepherd says that the buses and staff work very hard to help the students get to where they need to be on time.
Shepherd explained, “We constantly monitor the times and as the drivers get more familiar with the routes, the time to get to and from the home campuses improve.”
Michelle Somerhalder, one of the assistant principals, also said that Timber Creek buses are at the front of line, as well as set busses and drivers. She also explains that one of the number one concerns is safety for the students on the buses.
“They have to stop at the train crossings for a certain amount of time and they can only go a certain speed limit, so we want them to be safe.”
Overall, the time for students in fifth period classes have improved and other courses will continue forward with their normal times coming to and from Timber Creek that the school year started out with.
Johnson adds that it is important for students to get to class as soon as they arrive when the buses have dropped them off at Timber Creek.
