By Hailey Hagemaster
News Writer
Photo by Jack Heerhold

Metea added new stops for the activity buses that run after school to accommodate more students involved in extracurriculars. These new routes started running this past Monday.

“There are three different routes that we have running right now. We try to encompass all of the neighborhoods that feed into Metea,” Dean Matthew Walpole said.

The new bus routes make it possible for students involved in athletics or clubs to have a ride that would drop them off closer to home. Before, students would need to be picked up at one of the four stops: Still Middle School, Hill Middle School, Cowlishaw Elementary School, or May Watts Elementary School. However, these stops were only convenient for students who lived near these schools, in walking distance. Students who lived further would have to find a ride to pick them up from the late bus stop. The new bus drop off locations include neighborhoods near Fox Valley Mall, Butterfield, and any neighborhood north of I-88.

“Even if it is a couple of blocks away from my house, it is still closer than walking from the school,” sophomore Alli Bellandi said.

Many families requested these new stops to be added to make it more convenient for their students. Now, all students who ride the late bus live in a close enough proximity to their stop are able to walk home if needed. With these bus routes, all students in an extracurricular now have a dependable way to get home and do not need to worry about waiting for a ride from Metea, or their late bus stop.

“This is convenient to me because even though on a weekly basis I can get a ride home from practice, it is nice to know there is a back up option,” Bellandi added.