By Alesha Capone
PARENTS and staff at a Sydenham school have appealed to the State Government to provide more buses from Melton, after some students were left stranded at stops two days in a row.
The principal of the Catholic Regional College’s (CRC) Sydenham campus, which caters for Year 11 and 12 students, wrote a letter to the Public Transport Minister and Department of Infrastructure last month, asking for a solution to be urgently found.
Students from the school’s Year 7 to 10 Melton campus have to travel to the Sydenham campus once they start Year 11.
But an increase in enrolments after population growth in the Melton-Bacchus Marsh area has caused the bus problem, according to principal Brendan Watson.
“It’s crunchtime,” he said. “The buses have become completely over-crowded.”
After students were left waiting at bus stops in Melton and unable to get to school during the first week of term, Mr Watson said he “fielded many calls from parents.”
As a solution, the school has organised a colour-coded bus-pass program, based on which direction students travel from and where they live.
Year 12 student Amy-Kate Searle called her mother, Cherrie Searle, to take her to school after being stranded at a Melton bus stop two days in a row, as students are not permitted to stand on buses for safety reasons.
Although the school arranged for buses to take some teenagers to Sydenham, they could not all fit on.
“We wouldn’t need colour-coding passes if there were enough buses,” Amy-Kate said. “Students are also sometimes getting left at the school at home time, when people decide to change buses, as it takes a seat from a regular.”
“It doesn’t happen as much now, but sometimes one student has to sit on the floor if one extra person tries to come on.”
She said even though the CRC Melton campus would introduce Year 11 in a year and Year 12 in 2012, many students still wanted to attend the Sydenham campus.
The State Government did not respond to Star’s queries.
