Schools approve choice bus plan

The system, with kids from a neighborhood riding the same bus to different schools, will cost millions.

By KELLY RYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 5, 2002

LARGO -- The Pinellas School Board on Tuesday approved a bus system for its new choice plan that would raise operating costs by millions of dollars.

The system also would put students from different schools on one bus, and lengthen children's bus rides.

Tuesday's vote commits the Pinellas County School Board to spend an estimated $7-million more in annual operating costs to provide transportation. In addition, the district will spend almost $1-million more offering bus service to fundamental school students for the first time.

The district is exploring how to keep costs down. One possibility is hiring a private company to supply the estimated 180 new drivers and buses required to make the system work. Proposals are being requested now and will be reviewed this summer.

The bus system would take effect in 2003-2004, when the district implements a plan that gives parents more say in picking their children's schools. Parents will begin choosing those schools this fall.

The board voted 6-0 to support the new transportation system. Board member Jane Gallucci was out of the room during the vote, but said later that she would have voted no.

But even she has acknowledged that the system that passed is better than what was proposed almost two years ago: hubs.

Board members were aghast at the notion that students would have to switch buses like air travelers. That proposal was studied and discarded after being deemed impractical and surprisingly expensive.

The only two proposals that got real consideration were leaving the system as it is today and the "multischool" option. That second option won superintendent Howard Hinesley's recommendation because a consultant found it would be about $1-million cheaper a year than the current system and wouldn't be overly disruptive.

Still, School Board members expressed concerns about the increased time of students' bus rides. They also worried about children getting off at the wrong school.

School officials can only estimate the costs, the increase in bus-ride times and the number of students who will use the new bus service. They are based on how district officials think parents will choose schools. They won't know exactly how the new system will look until January 2003, after parents have made choices for 2003-2004.

Under the new system, one bus would pick up the elementary school students in a neighborhood and drop them off at the different schools they attend. Other buses would come through a neighborhood to retrieve middle school and high school students.

Transportation director Terry Palmer said most buses would stop at two schools, with only one elementary bus stopping at three. He predicts that 33 of the county's 84 elementary schools would keep their current home-to-school bus service.

He also predicted that bus rides would be 10 minutes longer than they are today. But that depends on traffic and how quickly students get on and off the bus.

"Can I absolutely guarantee that it's not going to be more than 10 minutes?" Palmer asked. "No."

Palmer also tried to assure board members that students won't get lost. He said he had not yet developed a system for keeping track of kids, but will work on it.

Among the options to be studied: giving students something color-coded to wear to identify their school or having students from different schools sit on different sides of the bus.

Board member Nancy Bostock pointed out that some South Pinellas elementary magnet students use this system today.

"I've never seen anything wrong," Bostock said. "Our kids are very good with directions and routines."

That wasn't much comfort to parent Denise Ballentine. First of all, she said, the money is outrageous and belongs in the classroom, not in buses. Second, she can't imagine putting her 6-year-old daughter Ashley on a bus with so much uncertainty.

"They would have to have more supervision," Ballentine said. "It would be real confusing for the young ones."

Parents will make choices for 2003-2004 beginning this year, in August through mid December.

The new choice plan, which will replace a system of neighborhood school zoning, is part of a federal court settlement. In 1964, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund sued the district for discriminating against African-American students.

A federal court order seven years later forced the district to desegregate schools, using racial caps in schools and busing some students long distances.

Choice will give parents a chance to bypass their neighborhood school and pick one miles away. Anyone who picks a school more than 2 miles from home is eligible for bus service, which is why choice could be so expensive.

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