Walking school buses begin the first day of school and continue through until Thanksgiving break, weather pending (we suggest you check with your designated WSB driver on mornings where the rain is very heavy or there is thunder and lightning!)

For those of you that are new to St Thomas, the walking school buses are like traditional school buses in that they run along a designated route at a set time… however at STA, we walk together instead of riding a real bus – thus walking school buses!  All routes have at least one adult driver to lead the children to school and make sure they arrive safely.

  • GREEN ROUTE: Begins at 43rd/Illinois at 7:25am and travels north on Illinois St to school.  Will operate Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday.
  • PURPLE ROUTE: begins at 44th/Pennsylvania at 7:25am – travels north on Penn, west on Meridian Place, north on Meridian and then west on 46th St.  Operates Monday.
  • ORANGE ROUTE: begins at 52nd/Illinois at 7:30am, traveling south on Illinois St.  Operates Tuesday and Friday!
If you are interested in participating, simply find the route that is most convenient to you and meet your friends either at the start of the route or anywhere along the way. No need to make reservations – just come when you can! If you or someone you know is interested in walking students to school on a designated day each week or if you would like to start up a new line along a different route, please contact Jennifer Pyrz at jennie@pyrz.net or 317.224.9529.

Looking for a Fun Way to Get Your Kids Excited about Walking and Biking to School?

The St. Thomas Aquinas Safe Routes to School Program will be continuing its program to encourage and educate students about active transportation by walking or biking to school. The Active4.Me program will utilize barcode technology, just like you see at the checkout line at your local grocery story. Each participating student will be provided with a unique barcode tag for the duration of the program. When arriving at school, the barcode is scanned by your student and teacher volunteers, and the user’s active transportation mileage is automatically logged into the Active4.me tool.  Children who participate will receive daily feedback about:

  • How many miles he/she walked to school during the semester
  • How many lbs of CO2 he/she prevented from being released into the air
  • How many calories were burned by walking/rolling to school

Additionally, parents can opt to be notified by email or text that their student has arrived at school.

Go to the ACTIVE4.ME website to register for our scanning program or to see how much STA has walked and biked to date!

FAQs:

The following documents provide additional information about the program:

For more information on the program or to volunteer, please contact committee chair Jennifer Pyrz at 317.224.9529 or jennie@pyrz.net.