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I think your memory is a bit fuzzy. I can maybe see thirteen minutes if you are the first stop. But the last? How many kids were on the bus, 2? Let's take a typical residential bus that carries 40 kids and makes 20 stops. If you assume 5 minutes to get the kids loaded and seated, and a minute for each stop, you are already at 25 minutes and that includes no driving time. It is perfectly reasonable for the last kids off a bus to be 45-60 min out.
My memory is not fuzzy. As I noted we live less than 2 miles from the school so that impacted the travel times (in our favor). We also had 7 buses serving our school last year. This year we have 27. THose buses need to exit out onto a very busy road. See part of the problem???
The amount of time you quoted is against Wake school board policy. The problem down here is people put up with so much crap "because it's how it has to be" and then the school board just keeps pushing it. Then everyone is surprised when they are completely tone deaf to the fact that no one wants to see the superintendent go. How does that happen? Well, they haven't been following their own rules and regs and no one has called them out on it (and there's more, but I'm not going to post it here). When they realize they can get away with a ton o' stuff, what possible reason would they have for actually thinking "hmmmm.....I wonder if the citizens that we represent think firing the superintendent is a good idea?"
Kind of hard to imagine how teaching shapes and algebra could be skewed by political beliefs Seriously though, in my years in the WCPSS I can't ever recall a teacher where you could tell which way they leaned in the political spectrum. Then again my family didn't get our panties in a bunch if we were taught evolution in biology, Biblical stories in classical literature, or the writings of all political philosophists, even the dirty commies, in civics so I guess it depends what your personal mindset is.
Clearly children aren't just taught "shapes and algebra" in k- 12.
And as I stated before I don't live there yet and have little to no experience with WCPSS...beside research from the Internet and people's personal opinions.....
But you might be surprised stepping foot in a few classes up here.... I find it a little rude that you say "my family didn't get their panties in a bunch....." Statement, implying that is what is going on in my head.....? That statement isn't even close to what I am worried about.... Kids need to be educated on a broad range of things, idea, theories, facts, et al. I'm just not even going to try and explain what it is I am worried about...that happens up here... Bc it's somewhat difficult to do if you haven't experienced it for yourself. But no.... Nothing of what you stated is what I'm worried about.....
My memory is not fuzzy. As I noted we live less than 2 miles from the school so that impacted the travel times (in our favor). We also had 7 buses serving our school last year. This year we have 27. THose buses need to exit out onto a very busy road. See part of the problem???
The amount of time you quoted is against Wake school board policy. The problem down here is people put up with so much crap "because it's how it has to be" and then the school board just keeps pushing it. Then everyone is surprised when they are completely tone deaf to the fact that no one wants to see the superintendent go. How does that happen? Well, they haven't been following their own rules and regs and no one has called them out on it (and there's more, but I'm not going to post it here). When they realize they can get away with a ton o' stuff, what possible reason would they have for actually thinking "hmmmm.....I wonder if the citizens that we represent think firing the superintendent is a good idea?"
From the wcpss website:
Maximum one-way ride times are adopted:
A. Base Elementary Students - One hour and 15 minutes
B. Base Secondary Students - One hour and 30 minutes
C. Nonbase Students - Thirty (30) minutes in addition to the above
limits.
So, why are so many parents upset about the bus ride?
As a parent, it is all the demands on the children. After school, there is the daily homework, extra-curricular activities, family time, etc. The time spent on a bus takes away time from one or more of these additional activities. Or leads the child to going to bed later than they should and being tired the next day at school.
As a taxpayer, every minute a child is on a bus costs additional money: fuel, maintenance, personnel. The more each of these expenses can be reduced, the more money that can be spent on educating the children.
Because the heavy emphasis on test scores has made people believe that they only way they can get a good education is if they jam their kid into Davis Drive. And this phenomenon isn't unique to Wake County but in other areas of the country your choice is limited to moving to get into the better-testing school. But there's a reason the test scores are high and it's not necessarily the demographics of the school. As I've said before, a lot of people are in for a big surprise this spring when they see how hard they work the kids to ensure those scores - they don't happen by magic. It can be done just as easily at other schools. I have a relative teaching at a wcpss school and they don't do ANYTHING to prepare for tests (no study island etc). No reason they can't, they just don't. Parents who want those great scores can simply push their own school to do these things. Not sure the endgame there, but obviously this is what people want to point to, to be able to show how great their school is.
A little something about Davis Drive and those test scores. I'm in the Davis Drive area (all 4 of my kids have attended Davis Drive), and when you look at the demographics of the neighborhoods surrounding Davis Drive, it's hardly a shock that there's some high test scores within the school. Of the 10 neighbors that I know well enough to know their educational history, ALL of them have AT LEAST a 4-year college degree, and of the 20 individual people that make up those 10 couples, 6 of them have masters degrees or higher. There are a lot of RTP professionals in the area surrounding Davis Drive, and as I have experienced, educated parents stress education to their kids.
Yes, prepping the kids to be able to take tests helps, but the 'real' education begins and continues at home. I'm the product of two educators (mom was a teacher, dad has a PhD in education and was a VP of a university in FL), as well as being from an "education" family (one uncle was the Superintendent of the county where I went to school, another uncle was a past VP of the UNC state system, and another uncle was a professor), and the one thing ALL of them would agree on is that parents who take an active role in their child's education have an immediate and lasting impact on their child's ability and desire to learn.
Never underestimate demographics (as it relates to the educational attainment of the parents) when it comes to educational achievement of a student population. Ever wonder why Green Hope High's graduation rate is so high? I don't. I remember Bill McNeal coming to speak at my employer, and him being quite surprised when his "economic diversity" policy was met with near-derision by the crowd. Bill made the same fundamental mistake that a lot of people make, in that he thought by exposing underachieving students to overachieving students, he was going to somehow make the underachievers "achieve". Mixing in some overachievers into an underachieving school might help with the symptoms (low test scores), but it won't fix the actual problem (lack of educational emphasis at home that lights the 'educational fire').
That's the reason for neighborhood schools. I fully support them.
Unfortunately, the current WCPSS board leaders' reason for not busing is bigotry, not convenience and lowering expenses.
RIIIING. Sorry to inform you sir/ma'am, the Race Card is currently over its limit. Remember folks, if you are opposed to a policy that is failing minority students (busing for diversity) you are a bigot. That is the default stance of the current majority and their supporters.
I came from a small town. We only had 1 high school. I usually walked home from school and it was about 3 miles. Some of my friends lived outside of town and rode the bus and sometimes it took an hour to get home, for them.
So, why are so many parents upset about the bus ride?
Vicki
I think it's just an illustration of the bigger issue. If I moved to a town where there was only 1 high school and it was an hour away, I would expect it and not be upset by it. What bothers people is that their kids are not sent to the closest school to their house. It seems like a waste of time and an arbitrary decision to send their child 45 minutes away when there are two other schools 15 or 30 minutes away. So it's not that 45 minutes is awful. It's that they feel that they have no control over where their children go to school.
I think it's just an illustration of the bigger issue. If I moved to a town where there was only 1 high school and it was an hour away, I would expect it and not be upset by it. What bothers people is that their kids are not sent to the closest school to their house. It seems like a waste of time and an arbitrary decision to send their child 45 minutes away when there are two other schools 15 or 30 minutes away. So it's not that 45 minutes is awful. It's that they feel that they have no control over where their children go to school.
What if the closest school to your house is at capacity?
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What if the closest school to your house is at capacity?
Exactly...so tired of hearing this is the way they did things when...
It's not as easy as it sounds to go to the closest school to your home when the population is exploding every year. If you really want to go to the school closest to home, move to a more stable area of the county. Don't move to west Cary, wake forest, apex, or holly springs and expect stability. Stability is what you give up for that shiny new cookie cutter home with granite counter tops for 250k. They WILL build new schools in these areas to support the people moving there in droves. Schools will become overcrowded. Your kids WILL be reassigned in these areas. I don't understand why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.
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Seriously though, in my years in the WCPSS I can't ever recall a teacher where you could tell which way they leaned in the political spectrum. Then again my family didn't get our panties in a bunch if we were taught evolution in biology, Biblical stories in classical literature, or the writings of all political philosophists, even the dirty commies, in civics so I guess it depends what your personal mindset is.
