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No 'doom' for schools so far in 'Viadoom'; Seattle Schools poise to alter bus pickup times if needed

SEATTLE — KIRO 7 checked in with Seattle Public Schools now that we’ve had several days with no Alaskan Way Viaduct and no SR 99 through downtown Seattle.

While there has been no impact on school bus pickups yet, district leaders are ready to make changes if traffic gets worse before the new SR 99 tunnel opens.

“We're very pleased about it that's for sure,” Seattle Schools spokesperson Tim Robinson told KIRO 7 on Thursday. “We think it's largely because we took some measures to get ready. We brought drivers in 30 to 45 minutes early. We brought the control room staff in early just to be ready for anything.”

The only minor school bus issues this week have been related to the ongoing bus driver shortage for the bus company, First Student.

Oleg Grygoremku has a plan in place to get his first grader to John Hale Elementary if traffic does get a lot worse. He'll take his son to school on a King County Metro bus.

“Take a bus because it's not really convenient to drive and then come back home and leave the car,” Grygoremku said.

Seattle Public School leaders know the smooth ride could change if drivers go back to their normal routines.

“We're wondering if next week might be a little worse because people get complacent,” Robinson said.  “But we're going to keep our measures in mind.”

The district is keeping the option of changing school bus pickup times if things get a lot worse in the next two weeks.

“If any student's route is affected either by Viadoom or normal stuff, parents and families will continue to be updated,” Robinson said. “They'll get robocalls, texts, emails.”

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