In mid-February, twenty-five Red Rose Transit Authority bus passes were issued to McCaskey students. These students lived one-two miles from the McCaskey Campus. The passes they were issued had ten rides on them and were distributed with the instruction that once the student used the ten rides, they should return to one of the main offices in order to fill up the pass again. 

As per district regulations, if you live two or more miles from the McCaskey Campus you are eligible to receive a ride from a school-provided bus. This policy, while logical, has its downfalls. Primarily the fact that many students live right on the line, a far walk but not far enough to qualify for a bus. For those students, steps are being taken to make the trip to school easier. 

The idea for the passes arose after trends in student attendance were analyzed and revealed that students living one-two miles from the school were less likely to come to school on days when there was severe weather. 

Edwin Rosario, an administrative assistant to Dr. Reese, spoke about this in an interview saying: “We can get up to twenty or thirty bad weather days a school year, which puts a large portion of our student body at risk for chronic absenteeism.” 

Before instituting the passes, Dr. Reese consulted with the Student Council where support for the idea was met.  

This program, along with other incentives and campaigns, is a part of this year’s administrative goal to raise student attendance. At the end of the year, the administration intends to review the data from the twenty-five issued passes and determine if the expansion of the project is logically and economically viable.