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we are traditional. Bus was scheduled to arrive at 8:22 and came at 8:55. Luckily I was working from home or it would have been 10:00 before I got to work! I went to pick him up off the bus at 4:00 to be sure. He usually gets home at 4:08. At 4:15 they called my husband to ask if he should ride the bus, and if so, which one (never mind the paperwork I filled out at Meet the Teacher last week apparently, or the email I sent confirming with his teacher). He finally showed up at 4:45. I got a voicemail from the principal at 5:23 saying that 7 buses had just showed up to the school for pickups so they would be late. Over an hour and a half after school got out so I am sure there were some panicky parents. Can you say C-L-U-S-T-E-R??
From someone who is seriously considering moving to North Carolina (Raleigh area) with two children, this concerns me greatly. I have already read numerous threads concerning the chaos of Wake County schools, and this certainly doesn't help matters. I'm leaning towards Johnston County as a result. Should we expect the same amount of chaos there? Most of what I read seems to be positive, especially when comparing the district to Wake County.
How can someone not have a school to go to on the first day of school? No offense but that sounds like the parents dropped the ball there.
Had a school but wasn't the school she wanted and was trying to get a different school. She waited in line for 3 hrs so apparently she wasn't the only one.
Had a school but wasn't the school she wanted and was trying to get a different school. She waited in line for 3 hrs so apparently she wasn't the only one.
That's crazy. Feel sorry for the kids. Did she "get the school she wanted"?
Can't wait to see what today brings with the buses. Ours is crazy-packed.
Can anyone be honestly surprised? When they first proposed the choice plan this was the chaos I had envisioned almost to a T. In my neighborhood I'm seeing gaggles of middle schoolers that are usually long gone by the time I leave for work in the morning which leads me to believe their bus is also chronically late, especially by the peeved off looks on the kids' faces. And the number of bus stops in the neighborhood have seemed to of tripled, I guess to accommodate the "choice plan." I have no idea how they're going to fix this bus situation by the end of the semester. I'll give them some credit and say it will probably be worked out by January lol.
I'm not trying to argue in favor of the current choice-based assignment plan, but I'm leery of using first day transportation issues as proof that the plan is flawed. In a system as large and complex as Wake, there are likely to be some problems at the start of a school year. This is not the first year some families have encountered transportation problems.
We had bus problems yesterday also. Last year my dd told me that many students on her route get off the bus at the neighborhood Elementary to play on the playground before they walk home. It is about a half mile walk so I did not have a problem with that.
Yesterday she told me the bus to the elementary school is not her assigned route but some other route, and that yesterday the bus had too many kids on it. The driver had to make the extra kids get off, go deliver 3 stops, then go back to get the overflow. By the time the bus got back to Middle school they were gone: they had walked or gotten rides. Of course this made the bus very late. Apparently the driver was unaware she had unassigned kids on her bus.
I'm not sure if my daughter is really riding a different route or just thinks she is. I told her to ride her assigned route this afternoon and not create problems for other people, but she is a follower, and doesn't want to be the only one of her friends riding the correct bus when they are all going to hang out on the playground together. I can't guarantee she will follow my instructions. In fact, I can almost guarantee she will not.
I called the transportation office and tried to explain it to them, but I'm not sure they understood. I also emailed the principal. I do not know what bus/route she actually rode. I looked at the route list online but it looks to me like her assigned route IS the route to the elementary school. I suppose there could be more than one bus assigned to that Route?
It seemed this way last year also. Instead of making an actual plan that includes the students assigned to each route, with a list for each driver, with a maximum number of students that correlates with the actual seats on the bus, and allocating an appropriate number of buses per school----they just run the old route, figure out what doesn't work OR wait until frustrated parents give up and provide their own transportation. (Which is what we did last year when the bus was running double or triple routes and making her late every day) Then there are fewer students riding; problem solved!!
What i'm saying is that busing disorganization is a chronic problem and in our case is not likely related to the so called 'choice plan'. Our school is a magnet, we live in the proximity neighborhood, our neighborhood has been stable for years, and when given a choice people didn't choose to go elsewhere, so our bus plan should not have changed.
alas, my hs dd has an earlier start time now, so we are all getting up at 5:30 to be on the bus stop by 6:30 for a 7:30 start time... and we live 2.2 miles from each school.
From someone who is seriously considering moving to North Carolina (Raleigh area) with two children, this concerns me greatly. I have already read numerous threads concerning the chaos of Wake County schools, and this certainly doesn't help matters. I'm leaning towards Johnston County as a result. Should we expect the same amount of chaos there? Most of what I read seems to be positive, especially when comparing the district to Wake County.
WCPSS gained well over 3,000 new students this year, of course we are having trouble getting them all bussed to school. By all means, please move to Johnston County!
Johnston does have schools with trailers which means the schools are crowded but overall not as bad as Wake. They seem to be handling it better since there are no crazy reassignments (currently) but I guess we will see if that changes but it doesnt seem like it.
They seem to build schools where they are needed instead of just try to spread out a problem (over crowding).
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not choice but
