So I'm gonna talk about the walking school bus. I'm the individual who is like the face of the walking school bus, but I'm a representative of a large group of people that have come together to make it so that we can find a solution to this challenge. Initially, the executive director, David Kobach had presented to the principal, Whitney Russell, that she would to approach me about spearheading the walking school bus. And this is an initiative. It's not, it's not something that we're being innovative. This is something that we're expounding on, right? It's a model where teachers, parents, community members come together and they walk with students to school in the morning to remove some of the barriers of transportation. Some families, because we're in elementary school and we have pre-K up into fifth grade; so some families have safety concerns for their children walking to school in the morning, everything from getting into adverse conversations with other peers or transport; cars coming by. We only have one crossing guard because of the amount of students that walk to school. So that's one of the ways that we have created a solution to transportation. So we meet at some local spots within the community and we walk every morning. Monday and Wednesday, rain, or shine, rain, snow. It doesn't matter the weather conditions; we're walking them to school. And we also have an incentive program attached to it called Tiger Bucks, which is our P. B. I. S. incentive program. So not only are we removing various transportation, but we're simultaneously promoting positive behavior within our school as well. So that has been an absolutely huge success. And because of our principle recognizing some of the trends and data we've been able to connect not only are walking school bus for attendance, but also, we've been able to connect that to the P. B. I. S. parties that we have on the day that we recognize that we have the largest absences, which is the day right before we go on long breaks; or the days after we come back from long breaks. So we've been able to make an interconnected solution to attendance. But it also addresses some of the other parts of our daily activities and curriculum to make it so that the students can not only access the school but also make it so that's the place they love to come and they feel safe and protected on their way here, as they're here, as well as on their way home.
