Arrival and Dismissal

2025-2026 Transportation and Safety Procedures

Your child’s safety is a top priority for the Bentonville School District and for the staff at Evening Star Elementary. For that reason, all K-4 principals and district officials appreciate your cooperation in following the district’s transportation and safety procedures.

As communicated in the parent letter emailed on July 25th, all staff will be available to assist students in finding their classrooms and getting settled. Parents may walk their students to class on the first day of school only. Beginning on August 13th, 2025, students will need to walk to class on their own. Staff will continue to be available to assist and provide guidance to our students. The office will be open for student check-in/check-out and appointments with staff.

To ensure the safety of all children, we will send your child home the same way every day unless we are notified by you prior to 2:00 p.m. If you have any questions regarding your child’s after-school dismissal status, please contact our school office at 360-7400. The office is open daily from 7:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m, if you need help or have any questions.

There are three modes of transportation: car riders, bus riders, and walkers. Please adhere to all transportation procedures outlined below to keep our students safe.

Morning Car Riders

Drop off is in the front of the building through the car loop between 7:00-7:30 a.m. Students may enter the building starting at 7:00 a.m.
At approximately 7:00 a.m., school officials will be on duty for the car riders. Once duty personnel are in place, students will be signaled to exit your vehicle. Please do not let students exit your vehicle until signaled to do so.
Have students ready to exit the car (backpacks in their laps, kisses and hugs given, etc.) when your vehicle is in front of the building and you have passed the student drop-off sign. Students will not be allowed to exit the vehicle before passing the designated “Drop Off Begins Here “sign. We have a limited number of staff available to assist with the car line, and if students are let out of their car after the “Drop off begins here” sign, it can be extremely dangerous.
Please make sure your car is in “PARK,” and do not proceed until the stop sign at the front of the line is turned to “Go.”
Once in the building, students may sit in their designated hallway until 7:22 a.m. At 7:22 a.m., their classroom door will be opened and their teacher will greet them. Teachers will begin morning announcements at 7:25 a.m., followed by promptly starting instruction at 7:30 a.m.
Breakfast will be available in the cafeteria from 7:00 a.m.- 7:25 a.m. For the 2025-2026 school year, one breakfast will be available at no charge to every student at the beginning of the school day upon his or her request. Students who choose to purchase lunch will be charged unless their family qualifies for free and reduced lunch. Need help or have questions about qualifying for free and reduced lunch? Call Annette Bunton at (479) 254-5095.
One final, but very important reminder: It is against the law to use your cell phone in a school zone. This includes our car-rider line. Thank you for being courteous in the car line and protecting all of our owlets!

Afternoon Car Riders

The afternoon bell rings at 2:30 p.m. All car riders will remain in their classroom until their number is displayed on the board in the classroom.
Make sure your car-rider tag is hanging from your rearview mirror and your child’s number is clearly displayed on your rearview mirror and visible to school personnel.
School-duty personnel will call the numbers of several students and have them wait by a colored cone until they are escorted by a staff member to their car. We will load approximately 40 cars at a time.
Please make sure your car is in “PARK,” and do not proceed until the stop sign at the front of the line is turned to “Go,”.
The outside lane will be released first. Once the cars in both the outside and inside lanes are full, the outside lane will exit the ESE car rider line onto Roberts Road first. The inside lane will follow. We can only dismiss one lane at a time since Roberts Road is just a two-lane road.
Only right turns onto Haxton Road are permitted during the hours of 7:00-7:30 and 2:30-3:30. If a car turns left onto Haxton Road, it shuts the entire car rider line down. Thank you for doing your part and helping us keep our car line moving safely and quickly.
All parents picking up students in a vehicle are asked to utilize the car-rider line and remain in their cars to pick up their child. If you need to buckle your child’s seat belt, please pull into our parking lot to do so, as staff are not permitted to buckle the seatbelts of our students.
If, for any reason, the individual picking up your child does not have the school-issued car tag, they will need to be prepared to show photo identification.
We ask parents not to park in the designated handicap spots. These spots are reserved for only those who are authorized to park there. In the morning or the afternoon, if you need to pull around to the parking lot from our car line, we ask that you park in one of the nine open spots in the front row on the other side of the handicapped spots or in any of the other available spots throughout our parking lot.
One final, but very important reminder: It is against the law to use your cell phone in a school zone. This includes our car-rider line. Thank you for being courteous in the car line!
We would like to remind parents if your child is going to be a car rider, please be patient with us the first couple of weeks. The line will be long and can take up to an hour or longer to get through while we teach our students the dismissal routine.

Our staff members have put together a short informational video for you. Your child's safety is our top priority. Please understand the car rider line will take some time for the first few weeks. As of right now, we are anticipating well over 450+ car riders. Your patience is appreciated!

Please click the following link to learn all about the ESE car-rider process

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Bus Riders

Please download the parent app BusQuest to see your child’s bus stop information. This app also allows you to sign up or remove your child from bus service at any time. To request new bus service or to see your bus route for this fall, download the BusQuest app and submit a request. Bus times may fluctuate between now and the start of school on August 12th, so be sure to check your child’s route information prior to the start of school.
A bus tag will be zip-tied to your child’s backpack. This needs to remain on his or her backpack throughout the course of the school year. Each student’s backpack tag helps the staff ensure every child gets on the correct bus. Students must have their original badges to scan on and off the bus every day.
If you have a Kindergarten student who will ride the bus, please make sure an adult is available each day at the bus stop to receive your child. Kindergarten students must be picked up by an adult from the bus stop or they will be transported back to ESE. If you would like your Kindergarten student to be able to walk home with another adult, please complete a walker waiver.
Our bus service is highly recommended! More information is available in our 2025-2026 Welcome to ESE Parent Letter that was emailed to you on July 25th.

Discovery

Discovery is our before-and-after-school child-care program. The hours of operation are from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. in the mornings, and from 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. after school.
Please ring the doorbell at the front door entrance, and a Discovery staff member will assist you. In the mornings, Discovery students are signed in by a parent. In the afternoons, parents will go directly to the Cafeteria to sign out their child. Please contact the Discovery staff regarding enrollment and drop-off/pick-up information for your child at (479) 412-0770.

Walkers

Students are allowed to walk only if they live within a 1-mile radius.
Crossing guards will be located at the corner of Haxton Road and Robert’s Road as well as the front entrance of our car line. Walkers will be dismissed at 2:30 p.m.
All Kindergarten students who live in the walk zone will need a parent to meet them at the crosswalk for pickup. Parents/Guardians will need their walker tag to show to a staff member for safety. Your child will be given a walker tag that will attach to their backpack, as well. Please meet the guard at the ESE brick sign just on the other side of the crosswalk off of Haxton Road and Robert’s Road to pick up your student.
In the event of inclement weather (rain, snow, extreme cold, lightning, etc.), you will need to pick your child up in the car rider line; therefore, you will need a Car Rider tag in the front right-hand side of your windshield. ESE Staff will not walk students during inclement weather. Please watch ESE social media for announcements.
For additional information about the walker zones, please contact the office.

Tardies

Homeroom teachers greet students at their door starting at 7:22 a.m. At 7:25 a.m., homeroom teachers will play our morning announcement. They will promptly start instruction at 7:30 a.m. The tardy bell rings at 7:30 a.m. If you arrive at school later than 7:30 a.m., you will need to come into the office to sign your child in. Duty personnel will be released from the car rider line at 7:30 so that they may begin providing instruction to our students. Per District Policy, excessive tardiness will result in detention and possibly in-school suspension.

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Transportation Changes

Parents, please call the office if your child’s mode of afternoon transportation is to change. Without a note, or a phone call to the office from a parent, students will be sent as usual. If calling, please phone before 2:00 p.m.
Please notify the office of any transportation changes rather than the classroom teachers. Our teachers are providing instruction, and they may not see an email from you until after 2:45 p.m.