High School Transportation 22–23 School Year

As ECS begins to prepare for the 22-23 school year, we wanted to take a moment to review transportation for high school students.  Transportation is provided by the district that you reside in, and for high school students who live in the Pittsburgh Public and Woodland Hills students, you will receive a Pittsburgh Regional Transit (formally the Port Authority) Connect Card at the Meet and Greet on August 15. If you live within 2 miles of the school, you will be considered a walker. For Wilkinsburg school district students you must contact your home district to receive your PRT Connect Card. To help prepare your child to take a PRT bus to school, please read the following guidelines.

 

The student and/or parent are the only authorized individuals to pick up the Connect Card at the August 15 Meet and Greet. Individuals who are unable to attend the Meet and Greet may ride the bus for free on the first day of school and will pick up their Connect Card on the first day of school on August 17 from the School Office Manager. 

Once the Connect Card is in your child's possession, it is your child's responsibility to maintain possession of their Connect Card until the end of the school year. ECS will provide a lanyard and bus pass holder to keep the Connect Card in. Connect Cards are to be utilized by the person it was issued for only. Connect Cards can not be lent out to any friends or family members for utilization. If a student allows someone else to borrow their Connect Card and it’s not returned to them, we can not and will not replace your Connect Card. The parent/guardian will be responsible for providing transportation for the remainder of the year at their expense. ECS will allow the replacement of two lost Connect Cards that a student truly has lost. A lost Connect Card can only be re-issued at the beginning of the month. If a student loses their Connect Card anytime during the month their parent/guardian will be responsible for providing transportation until the replacement card can be re-issued at the beginning of the month. If a student has received their two allotted replacement Connect Cards and they lose them again, No additional Connect Cards will be issued, and the parent/guardian will be responsible for providing transportation for the remainder of the year at their expense.

Connect Cards are loaded with a stored monthly pass on the first of every month with the exception of the months that have week-long school breaks. When school breaks occur, the Connect Card will be loaded with the appropriate stored weekly pass and stored dollar value to coincide with the time that school is in session for that month. 

For example, school ends on June 17th. You would receive the following. A weekly stored fare for the week of June 5th and a weekly stored fare for the week of June 12th. The students have school on June 1, 2, and 3 which starts in the middle of the week. A stored amount of $16.50 is calculated for the first three days of June: $2.75 per trip [includes “unlimited” transfers for three hours] x 2 trips per day = $5.50 per day x 3 days = $16.50 stored value.) 

We recommend that families map out a number of different Pittsburgh Regional Transit routes for the students to utilize with the following resources:

Staff will be working with our 8th-grade students next week to learn some tips and tricks to use bus schedules and plan out bus routes from their homes to their high school. Check out some of those tips here as well.

Sincerely, 

The ECS Team

District Communication, Middle School News, Website Update OnlyDeana CallipareComment