Families weighing whether to take advantage of their right to be grandfathered to avoid being reassigned this fall should have a lot of interest in today's school board discussion.
The facilities committee is slated to discuss a policy on who can use school transportation. One aspect likely to get a lot of discussion is whether Wake should continue to automatically deny bus service to any students who are grandfathered.
School officials have estimated that more than 11,000 of the 24,654 students who are in the three-year reassignment plan adopted in February are eligible for grandfathering. (School supporters have used that figure to argue that few families are being reassigned without a choice.)
Click here for the list of grades that can be grandfathered. Those families can apply for their automatic transfers between May 15 and June 1.
The lack of bus service has over the years caused some families, especially lower-income ones, to not apply for grandfathering.
Some parents argue that it makes no sense for their kids to be barred from the bus when it runs through their neighborhood to the grandfathered school.
But school officials have been reluctant to make exceptions to provide bus service, especially when it could increase the number of students who take advantage of grandfathering.
Click here to read the draft policy.
The facilities committee has set aside 90 minutes today to discuss the transportation use policy. The committee meeting is scheduled to run from 9:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. in the board conference room, 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.
Comments
loriac--I'm sure I'm not
Wed, 04/29/2009 - 08:13 — jenmanloriac--I'm sure I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know, but by denying Wood Valley those seats at Leesville with transportation, they are hoping that you'll go to West Millbrook instead.
brave new world
Wed, 04/29/2009 - 08:37 — loriacYes - because in the BOE view of the world, they know best where to send our children to school. All this posturing doesn't hide their real intentions.
Leave it to Wake County
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 08:20 — srhudson06Just another way to make it more difficult. If the bus is going to the school, let the kids ride it. Seems simple enough. Why does this school board look for ways to make things difficult on the parents?
Define seats
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 08:48 — supportwcpssI guess it all depends on what you define as empty. Just because you see a bus 1/2 or 2/3 full doesn't mean there is room on that bus. As Eric states, they have to provide adequate space on the bus beyond the 1.5 mile radius. So even if certain students (who get carpooled) never ride the bus, they system still has to make sure they have space for them.
So instead of being a blanket statement that grandfathered students are not allowed to ride, evaluate the potential students assigned to that bus and if there are extra seats then allow additional students. But wait a minute, what happens if you don't have enough to handle all the grandfathered students.
Simple Example: Bus holds 60. System estimates 50 can possible ride the bus. Along the same route 20 are grandfathered. But in reality only 40 ride the bus. So in reality all 20 grandfathered kids could ride but legally you can't let them. Which of the 20 do you allow??
They could add trailers to
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 09:05 — CaryCurmudgeonThey could add trailers to the buses :)
That is one of the proposed changes
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 08:37 — Eric_BThat is one of the proposed policy changes. If there are empty seats on a bus already going through a neighborhood, the new policy allows for parents to request bus service, even if you are attending by grandfathering.
Under current policy these students are simply denied bus service with no recourse.
Keung, have you received any
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 08:07 — lacyparentof3Keung, have you received any information about how many eligible under grandfathering policy submitted via the online form?
Are counties required to
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 07:33 — user1234Are counties required to provide transportation in general? Is it a state requirement? Just curious.
Yes, LEAs are required by
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 08:23 — Eric_BYes, LEAs are required by NC state law to provide transportation for students residing more than 1.5 miles from their assigned base school.
Once you choose to go somewhere other than your base school (including magnet schools) or if you live within 1.5 miles, it is up to the discretion of the school district.
Transportation is indeed at discretion of school district
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 09:02 — RMC10I read that in the State School Bus transportation laws also. Someone needs to throw this school board under the bus (figuratively) if they deny transportation to any student in this district, because this board is using dictatorial type governing, when they are not the the government, they are mere servants of the taxpayers and voters.
Someone must make sure this info gets in front of Judge Manning before he makes his ruling in May. He needs to see just how this school board is making it harder and harder on this mandatory year round project. This School Board is enacting hardships on the county as a whole because of their large reassignments and their ridgedness to their rules - seemingly just for the sake of "messing with the parents and students" who dare to question and revolt at the way they mishandle their power and their citizens.
All children need to be able to ride a bus to school if they would have qualified under the 1.5 mile or major highway crossing rules.
Heck, they bring in students from far away - poverty students by cab, C-Tran, private transport...to their assigned seat at little or no cost to parents - it shouldn't be both ways
beyond heavy handed
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 10:25 — loriacThis policy is beyond heavy handed. IF the reassignments were purely for growth, and the board needed kids to go to the new school because that's where they will go in the future, then the grandfathering w/out transportation makes sense.
HOWEVER, with the number of reassignments done yearly for 'diversity' - ie, the new school needs your numbers, but that may change the next year depending on the rule du jour, denying transportation is a hardship.
Here in WV, based on the projections at Leesville Middle, they should have accepted EVERY WV applicant. Since Leesville Middle is our YR option, the only thing the board accomplished by denying those students' applications (since we are grandfathered) was to DENY THEM TRANSPORTATION!
We may be a special case, but it's an example of how the heavy handed board has impacted students. Several students cannot apply for grandfathering because they need the transportation. We even have one family where the brother was accepted, but the sister was not - so one gets a bus ride and the other doesn't? I know supportwcpss will chime in and say there's an appeals process - but I for one am so sick of all these processes just to go to my neighborhood school that I have paid taxes for. ENOUGH ALREADY!
Thanks for nothing, BOE - I am so looking forward to the elections.
"few families are being reassigned" Really?
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 06:18 — g88ky07Even IF all 11 THOUSAND "grandfather" there is STILL 13 THOUSAND PLUS being moved. Does this make your utopian shell game acceptable Horace Tart?
Let me get this one since you can't think clearly,
NO, NO and _ell NO!
...
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 06:10 — SideburnsGrandfathering is a luxury that only some parents can take advantage of. It is not a 'choice'.
How many of those 11,000 that qualify are low-income students who rely on bus service? I know many in our school who will not be able to stay and must move on to their 3rd school in 3 years.