The Durham school board’s New Year’s resolution? Get kids to school.
At a special meeting on Monday, the board discussed two new strategies to tackle the ongoing school bus driver shortage — Family Responsibility Zones and Express Bus Stops — which DPS transportation services hopes to implement in January.
The new zones and stops are the latest proposals to resolve the bus crisis. They follow a recent decision to implement a “rotational bus service” in which families are responsible for transporting their children to school one day per week through the end of December.
Under the Family Responsibility Zones plan, the district would no longer provide bus transportation for students who live within a 1.5 mile radius of 21 elementary schools. Instead, families living within those zones would be responsible for getting their children to school. The district estimates the zones would impact around 1,028 families.
Mathew Palmer, the school system’s senior director of school planning and operational services, said his team has examined the zones in “fine-grained detail,” looking at sidewalks, traffic lights, and road speeds to identify where the plan could be implemented safely.
The names of the 21 elementary schools that would be affected by the new zones have not yet been made public.
Palmer also proposed new express bus stops for students attending Durham School of the Arts, Rogers-Herr Middle School, and the School for Creative Studies.
“So an express bus stop is asking families to arrive at their nearest school, and from that location receive shuttle or express stop service directly from that school site into the school that they’re attending,” Palmer said Monday.
The new stops would impact an estimated 1,100 riders and eight school bus routes.
School board members voiced support for the two options, but emphasized the need for clear communication with parents.
“When families signed up for the schools, they signed up for transportation,” board member Bettina Umstead said.
The district’s communication about the buses has been a sticking point for parents. At a board meeting on Nov. 21, DPS parent Kelly Reilly urged the district to be more open in its communication with the public.
“The newsletters and things that we get, we’re basically being told it’s a problem,” Reilly said. “We already know it’s a problem….So what I would like to hear in your communications is what you’re doing about it.”
Additionally, parents have raised concerns about the Edulog Parent Portal, the bus tracking app used to give parents notice about delayed and cancelled routes.
“So, for example, if a 12-year-old doesn’t have a phone or an app, they wouldn’t know, so they’ll be waiting forever at the bus stop,” Anna Garcia, parent of a 6th grader at Brogden Middle School, said in an interview with The 9th Street Journal.
Many students in her apartment complex catch the school bus at a nearby stop on Lasalle Street. But Garcia said the stop is problematic.
“The bus stop site is hazardous,” she said. “There’s no shelter to take cover in case of an emergency.”
Garcia also noted that many children in her apartment complex community end up taking city buses to get to school.
At Monday’s meeting, Sheena Cooper, the school system’s senior director of public affairs, said the district is working to be strategic about its communication regarding the two new options.
“We will make sure that we have a plan that speaks to all of those that will be impacted by this, so all of their questions are answered,” Cooper said. “And, whatever direction we take in the new year, that everyone is on the same page.”
The board and transportation services discussed Jan. 22 as a possible start date for the Family Responsibility Zones and Express Bus Stops. The board is expected to continue discussing the proposals at its meeting on Dec. 19.
