The Durham school board has scrapped the idea of “express stops” as a solution to the district’s school bus crisis. However, some families living near elementary schools will have to transport their children to school starting in late January.
Also, the district will discontinue “rotational bus service” — the practice of providing bus transportation four days a week. The approach was instituted at the beginning of December and will cease on Jan. 17.
Inconsistent bus service has left families scrambling since the start of the school year. The transportation crisis is due to a shortage of school bus drivers. In December, Mathew Palmer, senior executive director of school planning and operational services, told district leaders that the transportation department is working as fast as it can to hire new drivers. The school system needs between 30 and 65 additional bus drivers to ease the shortage, district officials said on Friday. In the meantime, the district has rolled out a series of stopgap measures.
At a work session Thursday, the board heard feedback from a community survey on the new transportation proposals, in which the ”express stops” were a top concern. The stops, which were originally planned for students at Durham School of the Arts, Rogers-Herr Middle School, and the School for Creative Studies, would have forced parents to drop their child at a nearby school that they do not attend, where the student would then wait for the bus to their school.
Community members raised concerns with the added burden of transporting their children to the stops.
“Our child rides the bus out of necessity,” read one comment from the survey. “If there is no one to take him to express stop, how does he get there?”
Given the poor reception, the board decided not to institute the stops this year. However, the transportation department recommended “express stops” be implemented for the 2025-2026 school year. Families applying to magnet schools have been notified about the potential stops.
Some families who live within one mile of 21 elementary schools will still be responsible for transporting their children to school beginning Jan. 21, a plan the district has dubbed “family responsibility zones.” Not all board members expressed confidence in the plan, however.
Board member Wendell Tabb was the most critical of the zones.
“I am deeply concerned that we are rolling out things in the middle of the year…,” said Tabb. “I am concerned with not doing enough research in these particular neighborhoods where we are going to say that kids can walk to school.”
The transportation team insists they have gone in person and worked with school principals to identify areas where the zones could be implemented safely. However, Tabb said he was not so sure.
“I love Durham but we have to be realistic,” Tabb said. “Some areas that we’re talking about, we don’t even want to drive down those areas.”
Larry Webb, chief operating officer of DPS, said families can apply for exceptions to the walk zone policy if it would cause them extreme hardship, and that the administration will consider every request. Board member Emily Chavez asked what would qualify for an exception.
“We are still looking,” Webb replied. “There’s as many answers to that question as there are potential hazards. So, we have not established a list. We are working on the documentation for that.”
Earlier in the evening, members of the public shared their gripes with the new measures. Chad Haefele, parent of a Rogers-Herr Middle School sixth grader, raised concerns regarding the equity of the plan.
“Ending neighborhood bus service and establishing walk zones for magnet schools, to me, are admissions that the Growing Together program has failed,” Haefele said, referencing DPS’ reassignment initiative. “You’ve reversed any improvement in equity and access to those schools, disproportionately impacting families without flexible schedules.”
