High school is often a very busy and exciting time for most teens, especially classes which are a gateway to new opportunities. These new opportunities usually mean putting in extra hours in school whether that is after or before school. Although D219 highly encourages students to get involved in school, they do not adequately supply students with sufficient transportation.

Early bird classes, for example, are one of the most popular ways that students can add more classes to their schedules. One of the problems that several students have with early bird classes is coming to class on time. I fortunately have a ride to my early bird class, but, due to the bus, my older sister was always late to early bird physics class and it constantly stressed her out.

Many early bird students take the regular morning bus to school and generally see no problem with it, because it usually comes to school a few minutes before their class starts. However, there are inevitable days when the buses are a few minutes late, and with the school’s new automated tardy system, just a few tardies caused can now result in detentions.

Although this is a pretty extreme case, it shouldn’t even be a possibility! Why are we punishing students for relying on school-provided transportation to get to school?

Now the argument could be made that “if you’re trying to get into an early bird class you should have some self-reliable transportation”. It is unfair to exclude students who don’t have personal rides to school from being able to join early bird classes. But there is a solution to all this: having early bird buses. This would solve a lot of students and problems not only caused by early bird but it would also allow a lot of students to come in early to get extra help from their teachers or from the Literacy Center.

Another issue that could be solved by having alternate bus routes is more people would participate in after-school activities. One common complaint that many students have with starting after school is that the earliest after-school bus service leaves at 5:15 p.m. This is very inconvenient to many students whose after-school clubs end at 4:30 p.m.

How are students expected to do after-school clubs that make them wait close to one hour for a bus, which results in them getting back home around 6 p.m, doing home responsibilities and finishing all their homework? This schedule leads to many students not doing after-school clubs for fear of being unable to fulfill previous obligations, in turn robbing students of new opportunities and the school from gaining possible advancements from that student. However, there is a fix to this: have two bus routes, one for 6:15 pm and one for 4:45 pm.

While these changes might seem minor now they will definitely encourage students to be more involved with the district, because accessibility is the key to creating a more educated world.