Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata is not ruling out the possibility of providing bus service to students who are losing transportation next year because they're entering a middle school or high schools that's not on their choice list.
As some posters have commented, the initial notice of assignment slips that went out last week for the new choice-based student assignment plan had some surprises. Some families with children entering middle school or high school in 2012-13 were told they wouldn't get bus service.
Wake has repeatedly assured families they can grandfather both their current school next year and their current feeder pattern.
But Wake is only guaranteeing transportation for grandfathered students if they're not changing schools. No guarantee of bus service exist If you're grandfathering into your current pattern for sixth- or ninth-grades..
if depends on whether the middle school or high school you're entering is among your choice options for your address. If yes, you get bus service. If not, no luck.
During Friday's news conference, I asked Tata how many families were not getting bus service next year because of this situation. He answered that he had asked the student assignment task force for that information.
Tata added though that “what you’re talking about is a very small number of parents and students.“
I followed up by asking Tata if there was a possibility of Wake making changes to provide any of the affected families with bus service. Here's Tata's response:
“We’ve been having discussions about the entire transportation system and whether or not we might be able to be far more efficient than we are now." Tata said. "We’re in some preliminary discussions about that with the transportation folks and there may be a way, based upon how if indeed we do overhaul the transportation system, to be more efficient and also to catch some of these folks.
...There may be an opportunity. I wouldn’t say yes and I wouldn’t say no now.”
How far the new school board majority is willing to go along with any overhaul in transportation remains to be seen.
Comments
Opting back to traditional middle schools closer to home
Mon, 11/21/2011 - 15:45 — jedaviI believe that many of the students impacted are YR opt-out students. These families don't necessarily want a bus to the feeder school of the opt out school because those schools are often very far from home. In my case I'd like to opt back into the feeder pattern of the MYR elementary school I left. My neighbors are all bused to those middle and high schools (both traditional calendar) and all I want to do is add my child to those buses. It seems crazy to consider busing my child to a MS >10 miles away when there's another one that my neighbors attend that is only 3 miles away. Under the choice plan I've been told I can apply but I only have two options, one YR and one traditional school, both 3 miles from my home. Student assignment has told me there's no guarantee I can get a seat at the traditional calendar school. If it's full I'll be forced back to MYR.
Good to see MYR is alive and well
Mon, 11/21/2011 - 23:06 — FSandYOUAnd it always will be. It was designed that way and it will never truly go away.
You can thank the DuBu Reign of Terror. They will forever haunt your family.
calendar option
Mon, 11/21/2011 - 20:53 — awake1In general, I suspect that families who chose their calendar option school, be it YR or traditional, may be most affected by the lack of transportation. For our node/neighborhood where most families choose to attend our YR elementary school option, it makes just as much sense, proximity-wise, for us to go to this school, or the middle and high school on our elementary school's feeder pattern as it does to go to any of the schools that are actually on our "choice" list. Seems the simplest approach for situations like ours is to put the schools on our feeder pattern on our "choice" list.
T.K.H., thanks for posing the questions to Supt Tata.
Good point...
Mon, 11/21/2011 - 15:50 — Bob_SconceWhen the previous administration was forced to identify traditional opt-outs, they deliberately selected schools that were not proximate -- the idea was to push families into accepting their year-round assignments. That doesn't blend well with a plan that considers proximity.
Busing...
Mon, 11/21/2011 - 15:35 — uBniceused to be a bad word.
So...
Mon, 11/21/2011 - 14:33 — Bob_SconceIt seems to me that if you're grandfathering into 6th grade and your neighbors are going to the same school for 7th grade, it should be a no-brainer to let your kids take the same bus.