As on every morning this school year, Diana Zook waited Monday with her three day-care children for the No. 10 school bus to arrive at the corner of her west Redmond neighborhood.

The 26-seat bus was late, as it often is, Zook said, checking her watch. By the time she helped load the 23 waiting students at the stop into available bench-seat spaces, the bus was running even more behind.

Inside the bus, students squeezed together on the 39-inch seats. Georgia-based Blue Bird Corp., the bus manufacturer, recommends a capacity of 78 elementary children for this model. But on Monday, there were 86 students by Zook’s count. She said two children, tired of jostling for seat space, sat on the floor.

Crowded bus No. 10 is a rolling example of the Redmond School District’s booming growth and tight budget. Parents of students who ride this bus said in interviews while waiting for the bus that they’re worried about safety and late arrivals at school.

School transportation officials said budget cuts have already eliminated two routes and most of the 44 bus routes are operating at or near capacity.

They said in interviews that it usually takes a few weeks at the beginning of each school year to work the kinks out of the bus system.

On Monday, Zook dialed the school district’s transportation department on her cell phone, as she has before, to complain as the bus pulled away at 8:45 a.m. – five minutes before the last bell rings. The children would be late for school again.

Some mornings, Zook said, the No. 10 bus arrives at Evergreen and John Tuck elementary schools after the bus area gates have been closed and classes have started.

Sharon Petrie, who waited with her daughter at the bus stop Monday morning, said she doesn’t like her daughter being late to school. So she has been driving her to school frequently, but added that she can’t always be a chauffeur.

”My car hardly runs as it is,” she said.

According to Marty Hopper, transportation manager for the district, many bus routes in Redmond are at maximum capacity this year. Only one has been crowded enough to make a change, however, and that was No. 10.

On Tuesday, the No. 14 bus – only partially full – detoured to pick up the students at the west Redmond bus stop. Its schedule was also moved up five minutes to ensure a more timely arrival at the schools.

Hooper said it takes a few weeks for student riders to settle into a predictable pattern.

”We usually run buses for a couple of weeks, then make adjustments if they are needed,” Hopper said.

An accurate head count of bus riders isn’t always available early on because kindergarten classes start two weeks into the school year, he said. Another complicating factor, he said, is that some students who should be walking to school may be riding the bus.

The school district has a one-mile walking zone for elementary students. Students who live within one mile of their school are not allowed to ride the bus.

Parents at the bus stop Monday said they have complained for weeks to Hopper that children are sometimes crammed four or more to a seat and are forced to sit or stand in the aisle. This is not acceptable, they said, citing concerns about safety.

”We’ve all called,” said Petrie. ”All they say is they’ll look into it.”

Another parent, Tracie Langdon, said her daughter told her she was yelled at by a bus driver after falling out of a seat with four students.

State law does not set a maximum number of students on a school bus. As long as a student can lift his or her feet off the floor and not fall off the seat, any number of children per seat is allowed, said Doug Snyder, director of support services for the Redmond School District.

According to Zook, the NW Fir bus stop has always had lots of kids, but the addition of new subdivisions in the area caused the No. 10 route to be overloaded.

”They’re (school transportation officials) mad at us because we’ve been riding their butt,” Zook said on Monday. ”But what are you going to do? It makes me so mad that they’re taking so long to do anything.”

Snyder said that although he was aware parents were unhappy with the crowded No. 10 bus, he had no reason to believe that children’s safety was compromised on the bus. He said he hadn’t heard parents’ claims that children were sitting in the aisles or on laps of schoolmates.

Jim Roderick, transportation supervisor for the Bend-La Pine School District, said that an average of one to three new bus routes has been added every year in his district over the last few years due to community growth. Drivers on full routes are told to pack kids in four to a seat if they can fit them in that way, but this is always considered a temporary solution, he said.

”We exhaust all other possibilities, first including sending another driver out with a van if needed,” Roderick said. As soon as a route is deemed consistently overcrowded an alternative plan is put into place, he added.

”We usually have it all worked out by Oct. 1,” Roderick said. ”But it can be an on-going problem.”

Redmond officials say they’ve been trying to do more with less.

”People don’t always understand what goes on in a budget crisis,” Snyder said. ”We had to eliminate two bus routes this year. In past years buses usually ran 70 (percent) to 80 percent full. Now most of them are at or near capacity.”

Complicating matters is new student database software that school officials used this year to develop bus routes. Officials discovered the new system put more than 600 bus riders on wrong bus routes because addresses were incorrectly listed.

”Staff in the schools are working on the problem and we hope to have it all figured out soon,” Snyder said. ”The first few weeks of school are pretty fluid in terms of bus ridership and it takes time to sort out and address all the problems.” ?