Van Transportation
St. Francis offers student transportation service to and from campus from the following areas: North Santa Cruz County up through Santa Cruz, down to the Monterey and Seaside communities, Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister.
Please fill out the following form if you are interested in being picked up by one of our vans.
Note: Completing this form will inform the school of your interest in van transportation service. Seats are typically filled on a first come first serve basis after receipt of the actual van transpiration application form and a request for deposit. At times the school may decide to use the lottery system to fill the seats, families will be informed of the actual system used upon distribution of applications.
We're Doing Our Part to Go Green!
Some 480,000 school vans/buses carry 25 million children - more than half of America's schoolchildren - each day, making the school van/bus industry the largest form of mass transit in the United States. Taking cars off the road, reducing carbon emissions, and making the world a better place to live are everyday results for school vans/buses. For St. Francis, students in grades 9-12 all take advantage of riding an historically safe school van to and from school. Our drivers are school personnel cleared by the Monterey Diocese, DOJ, and FBI. Each driver undergoes safe-driver training annually to ensure they are competent, defensive drivers.
It may come as news to some, but every school van/bus on the road eliminates approximately 36 cars. For every van/bus you keep on the road, that's 36 fewer cars clogging the morning commute and 36 fewer cars polluting the atmosphere. The traffic on Hwy 1 shrinks when students travel to school in our vans. Currently, our vans travel north from Monterey County, south from Santa Cruz county, and west from Santa Clara and San Benito counties. In 2010, a study showed that school vans/buses saved the United States 2.3 billion gallons of gasoline, representing $6 billion in savings at 2010 fuel prices.
Simply put, school van/bus transportation makes our students and communities cleaner and healthier. As our country searches for ways to make our environment and our children healthier, riding a school van/bus is an easy way to Go Green, helping us to create a better future for everyone.
Our school vans arrive to school at by 7:30 am each morning. This occurs even when we have the occasional late start. Teachers/staff who are designated school van drivers still have to be in attendance by 7:30 am each morning. If students arrive to school at 7:30 am on a late start day, we have the Learning Resource Center (LRC) and/or classrooms open for students to study in and stay with friends. The vans leave at 3:20 on a regular school day even when we have an early dismissal.
Individual drivers will inform student-passengers and parents if there is a change in the arrival and/or departing time from school - i.e. semester finals.
Cost per student is $2100 for the year. There are no van-passes for occasional, one-way riding. The price is for transportation both ways for the entire year, whether the student uses the van service each day or not. Families do not qualify for a credit or refund if their student does not use the service. If you have questions or suggestions to better serve our students then please contact Ms. Lilia Madrigal.
Specific rates are determined on an annual basis based on student/family need.