Transportation Services

Dear Families,

We are excited about the start of the 2022-23 school year. I wanted to update you on some changes to our systems and procedures this year. We have updated our transportation routing system to a program called Transact. This program is cloud-based and provides more flexibility with better ways to communicate with you about any changes that occur in our routes. It has access to the parent portal with a companion app for it. You will be able to view your student's transportation information as scheduled including updated stop location and stop time information. We are hoping that through the app you will be able to locate where your bus is in the app (we are still waiting for this functionality to be up and running). As I am sure you have heard that there is a nationwide shortage of bus drivers. It is no different here with the Mercer Island School District. In the past years we built our routes for all students that qualify for transportation but this year we have had to change our routes to reflect the driver shortage. We are now requiring all students that qualify for service to sign up for service to be assigned to a route. (Parents will receive a link via email to request bus service. That link will either be sent from transportation@mercerislandschools.org OR traveltrackerrouting@app-garden.com) They will be required to agree to accept the school board's policies concerning transportation as well as ask them to go over the rules and tips for riding the bus from our department.

To protect our students and drivers from COVID-19, we are continuing the following protocols on our buses.

The front two windows and the back two windows on every bus must be opened to at least the first stop (approx. 1”) to create a good amount of ventilation on the bus.

If your student is feeling ill, please do not send them to school.

Please review with your student the information on our Transportation website School Bus Safety and go over our normal safety procedures, as well as our MISD Policies Student Safety Walking, Biking & Riding Buses to School.

This year we are providing transportation service to all elementary students who live within their school boundaries and live 0.5 miles or more from the school they are enrolled in. To find out what schools your student attends, use this map. We provide limited bus transportation to and from each elementary school to designated before and after-school programs.

We are providing transportation service for all Islander Middle School students who live on Mercer Island and live 0.75 miles or more from Islander Middle School.

The District will be providing its own yellow bus transportation service for all Mercer Island High School students who live on Mercer Island and live 1.0 miles or more from MIHS. We have discontinued our King County Metro service. MIHS students will be able to ride one of our five District yellow buses to school or from school, but they must sign up for transportation. All buses will drop off and pick up on the bus pullout on 92nd Ave SE.

For more information, please check out our transportation website or contact us at 206-236-3338 or 206-230-6335 or email us at jay.little@mercerislandschools.org or william.gerdes@mercerislandschools.org.