Public school students in Grades 7 and 8 in Ridgetown will ride the bus with the high schoolers starting this fall.
The students already share a building with the older grades at Ridgetown District High School (RDHS) and now the Lambton Kent District School Board is set to align their start times and dismissals.
The Grade 7/8 students at Ridgetown District Elementary School (RDES) are starting at 9:20 a.m. right now, but they will start at 8 a.m. in September 2024.
Those same students will also be dismissed at 2:10 p.m. along with the RDHS students.
With the change in bell times, the school bus service for all of the students (elementary and secondary) at RDHS will be converting to the 7-12 integrated service model.
That will mean altered pickup and drop-off times for the students and it could change which bus the students take.
The school board says Grade 7/8 students will have seating assignments at the front of the bus while seats at the back of the bus are open for RDHS students.
The bus stop locations will be staying the same and there won't be any substantial changes to the average riding times.
The bell times at Naahii Ridge Elementary School will also be staying the same.
Parent are being directed to the online parent portal for more information on the preliminary transportation details. That information should be available from CLASS by mid-July with final transportation details in place by August 26th.
