By Heather Lusk
For the past several years, the before and after school programs R.O.C.K. and the Boys & Girls Club have shared student bus transportation. Even with school start times changing, both organizations expect to continue the mutually beneficial agreement.
“Even though we’re in competition with one another, we help one another,” R.O.C.K. Director Kathy Gibson said. “We all fill a need for families here.”
R.O.C.K., Really Outrageous Christian Kids, is based at Zionsville United Methodist Church near the Boys & Girls Club east location.
Buses and drivers are shared so there is always a bus and driver available to all of the Zionsville Community Schools. R.O.C.K. owns and operates two buses for the routes.
“Since we have worked so well together these past few years we thought why not do it again, provide the service to the parents, work together,” she said.
When the school year begins in the fall, elementary school students will begin at 8 a.m. and middle school will start at 8:45 a.m. Gibson doesn’t plan to raise prices for the R.O.C.K. program, which allows enrollment from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Even with kindergarten beginning an hour after other elementary school students, Gibson plans to offer separate transportation for those children.
The only change foreseen by Gibson in the fall is after school. She now has assistance from high school students, but because their school day will end an hour after elementary school, Gibson said the younger children will probably play and have a snack before the older children arrive.
“I’m sure there’s going to be a few kinks,” she said, “but I think we can work that out.”
