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I looked at the plans and they seem to make a lot of sense given the logistical issues with the bus. Our area isn't affected, but we stabilized our school assignments through high school by going to a magnet school.
You shouldn’t have to go to a school 30 minutes away to get stability for your children.
Reassignments are necessary but should only be done when absolutely necessary, not as a “let’s try this and hope for the best” type of deal. Also the caps should be enforced instead of reassigning out established residents to make room for new residents.
I am beginning to wonder if any of the leaders in this space here have any background at all in logistics. Freaking computer models can do a bang up job drawing up districts (shh, don't tell the politicians, they'll lose their wooby, Jerry Mander). How does a "transportation district" that in part covers a town with the population of ~45K (which itself has 3.5 HS, 3 MS and 3 ES plus whatever else gets transportation services) take buses 25 mins out? I mean when I moved here, the locals (both here and in real life) made it sound like a drive of 20 mins in this metro was akin to moving heaven and earth "20 Mins! That's like driving to the end of the Earth here!"....yet here we are. LOL.
This all reminds of the Snowmagedan winter we had in MA back in 2013-2014. The MBTA Commuter Rail was brought to its knees....because cold. Technicians were out with blow torches manually warming up rails to get trains running.
Thats right, a nearly 200 year old invention was stopped dead....by cold. Not North Dakota cold. Not Frozen Tundra of Siberia cold. Just your run of the mill sub 32 degree day.
I will say, I have been on the other side of this general discussion (WCPSS) than you and m378 typically are (for different reasons obviously). But the "how it's supported logistically" stuff is like they went down to the local street corner and hired the first three people who didn't wave their arms and scream out loud to figure this ish out.
"Hey, you have a pulse and four firing synapses!? You're hired! Sign here"
Same with the Long Island RailRoad. My dad commuted for 30 years and I don't remember him having any issues getting home. Now it's just as you describe.
You shouldn’t have to go to a school 30 minutes away to get stability for your children.
Reassignments are necessary but should only be done when absolutely necessary, not as a “let’s try this and hope for the best” type of deal. Also the caps should be enforced instead of reassigning out established residents to make room for new residents.
Some of the proposed reassignments make sense - like sending Brookstone to Green Hope instead of Apex. But some are typical WCPSS - they reassigned Dogwood Ridge from Apex to AFHS when it opened. Now they are assigning them back. But Dogwood Ridge is connected to Pearson Farms (they share pool/tennis etc) and Pearson Farms is staying at AFHS. Head scratcher.
The feedback “forum” they’re using this year is an absolute disaster as well. I don’t understand the point of it at all, there’s no way to interact with a human, nobody responding the comments. Wait, maybe that is the point…
Some of the proposed reassignments make sense - like sending Brookstone to Green Hope instead of Apex. But some are typical WCPSS - they reassigned Dogwood Ridge from Apex to AFHS when it opened. Now they are assigning them back. But Dogwood Ridge is connected to Pearson Farms (they share pool/tennis etc) and Pearson Farms is staying at AFHS. Head scratcher.
I need an explanation for this one then...
We're currently zoned for Neuse River MS (modified calendar) with Wendell as the traditional option. Under the new plan, there is no calendar option.
Shortage of bus drivers creating no drivers for 17 bus routes. It says all options are being considered, including delaying the start of school by 1 hour so drivers and parents have time? What kind of ridiculous answer is that? Pay is still not being increased enough for someone to do the job.
Pay has been increased more than 25% over the past few years and they still can't fill the jobs. It appears they can't raise wages further at the moment because there's no state budget. Wake County also gave them $5 million less toward their portion than WCPSS had requested.
But yes, it's unacceptable. This isn't a first-time issue and it's getting worse, not better. Figure out a way to get it done. The board recognizes it's unacceptable, but I don't know what their solution is unless money magically appears. They've already begged families to decline transportation, and they've begged retirees to pitch in, and they're still not where they need to be.
Re-allocating budget from non-essential programs would be a good start. I think buses should take priority over equity affairs for example, especially since the busing issue is literally an equity issue in itself.
And here I thought providing sound basic education to everyone in NC was a state constitutional right. I don't see how you do that if you can't provide reliable transportation for students to their assigned schools. If the county can't pay sufficient wages and benefits to attract staff to drive buses (highly questionable IMO), then the only real alternative is to reduce the need for more bus drivers. That likely means minimizing the drive time for students as much as possible, which is not something the Wake County school board has been willing to do in the past.
WCPSS transportation has been a problem for decades. They used to hire high school students as bus drivers for the elementary schools. That practice had to be abandoned and several years of disruption ensued.
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