Beach Transportation Has Been Getting Kids to School for 83 Years

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Many generations of Missoula County children have been safely transported to and from the city’s public schools over the past 83 years, and the 2024-2025 school year will be no exception.

I spoke to Beach Transportation General Manager Carlin Cavill this week who provided some facts and statistics about the iconic bus service.

Beach Transportation has Been Getting Kids to School for 83 Years

“We service all the Missoula County Public Schools; all the grade schools, middle schools, and high schools, and that ends up being about 17 schools,” began Cavill. “We have roughly 80 full-size school buses and 40 mini buses. I would roughly say we’re transporting around 4,000 students per day.”

I asked Cavill about basic school bus etiquette, and what he expects from his passengers.

“The basic rules would be to get on, find a seat, stay in your seat, keep your hands to yourself, and face forward,” he said. “We try to get them to be polite and courteous to the other riders. Know your bus stop, and please just behave. That seems to be a little bit of trouble. Everybody has their own definition of ‘behave’, because they get on the bus and they're pretty rambunctious, you know, they're sitting next to their friends.”

Yes, There are Seat Belts on Missoula School Buses

One question on the mind of parents is, ‘Are there seat belts on school buses?’

“Missoula County Public Schools here, a couple of years ago, adopted the seat belt rule, and we are gradually getting there,” he said. “I would say there's going to be about 10 or 11 busses (out of 120) that this year that do not have them yet. But as time allows and we buy new busses, the old busses are kind of put out the pasture and the seat belts will be put into place.”

Cavill said one very important fact that parents and children will have to know is that school start times will be staggered, leading to more bus travel.

Parents Need to Get Their Children to the Bus Stop On Time

“Right off the bat, the middle school is the first one to start, and the start time in middle school is going to be 7:48 a.m., so all busses will go out and get middle school kids, and then they come in and drop them off,” he said. “The start time through K through 5 is going to be 8:16 a.m. and there's not a lot of time to turn around and go get those K through 5 students, so there's going to be another wave of busses going out to pick them up, and then the ones that did the first middle school will then go out and pick up the high school students.”

Cavill said due to the staggered start times, it’s vitally important that parents get their children out to the school bus stop on time, so they don’t get left behind.

Check your child’s school website for details on start times.