When school gets out each day, some students rush to the locker rooms to get ready for sports practices. Meanwhile, others loiter outside, chatting and making plans. About 30 students walk to the sidewalk in front of the Tappan Gymnasium, backpacks in tow, Charlie Cards in hand. These are the SoBro kids.

Students living in South Brookline have the option of taking a bus to and from school. Each morning, a yellow Eastern Bus Company school bus picks up the students at 7:45 a.m. on Puddingstone Street and drops them off at the high school. Every afternoon, a MBTA bus picks up students from Tappan Street with stops at Clyde Street, Grove Street and Putterham Circle. However, students must pay a fee of 60 cents to ride the afternoon bus.

According to Mary Murphy, transportation coordinator for the Brookline Public Schools, this model has remained unchanged, even before she inherited her position 10 years ago.

“The yellow school buses are used for the elementary level,” said Murphy. “We have four going to multiple schools. Three go to Runkle because of relocation. Three or four go to Boston.”

The yellow school buses are busy from 3:15 p.m. to as late as 4:30 p.m., according to Murphy. Therefore, they cannot be used to bring BHS students home.

Sophomore Renata DiDonato has no issue paying the MBTA bus fee but thinks the buses often lack sufficient space.

“There are a lot of kids going home,” said DiDonato. “I think there should be multiple buses that come.”

Sophomore Maggie Mittleman takes the bus home after every school day. According to her, the conditions on the bus often vary.

“Some days, the bus is really stuffy,” said Mittleman. “It’s crowded, and you can’t find seats. Sometimes you can’t even find a place to stand.”

However, Mittleman said that there are also times when the bus is nearly empty.

Both junior Daniel Mataiev and freshman Solookhuu Bat-Erdene agreed with Mittleman. Bat-Erdene mentioned that overcrowding has led him to vie for the seats near the back where there is more space.

According to Murphy, the town repeatedly requests more buses from the MBTA.

“We’ve asked for a second bus every year,” said Murphy. “But they’re pretty strapped. In these difficult times, I can’t imagine that they can supply one.”

Overcrowding is not the only issue. The inconsistency of the bus’ departure time has also proved a problem.

According to Mittleman, the bus arrives early on some days while on others it runs up to 30 minutes late.

“Especially on rainy days, there have been days where I have waited outside until 3:15 p.m. for the bus to come,” said Mittleman. “But other days, I get to the stop at 3 p.m. because I had to meet with a teacher or something, and the bus is already gone. There’s really no way to tell when it will be there.”

Although students have many concerns, DiDonato believes that it is up to the parents and students living in South Brookline to communicate with the town and take action to make changes happen.

“People always want more service,” said Murphy. “But this is a reasonable service that is no additional cost to the taxpayer. The vendor doesn’t charge us. People always say they’re willing to pay for more, but that’s not always the case.”

According to Murphy, the buses provided are a courtesy. State law only requires bus service to be provided for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

“We don’t supply bus service to North Brookline,” said Murphy. “A lot of kids either walk over or they take the T over to Kenmore Square and come out on the D line. The only place we offer the service is South Brookline, and we are only able to do that because we can piggyback. The vendors won’t charge us on it.”

For now, students have only two other transportation options: wait for a parent to pick them up or take the train into Cleveland Circle and ride the hourly 51 bus to Putterham Circle.

“The buses aren’t great,” said DiDonato. “But you make it through because it’s the only way you can get home.”

Murphy said that nothing is definite regarding issues that may arise due to the growth in population.

“We’re doing our best to accommodate the people,” said Murphy. “Nothing is perfect, but we’re doing the best we can.”

Pearl Choi can be contacted at [email protected].