This story originally published in The 9th Street Journal.
Reports of busing delays are rife at the Durham School of the Arts, as the district’s newly implemented “express stops” system begins. Some students are waiting for up to an hour before the bus arrives at their designated stop, parents have said.
Under the new system, school buses pick up and drop off students at “express stops” – a school or DPS site up to 10 miles from their homes. These stops were implemented for all student bus riders enrolled at DSA and Brogden Middle School’s dual-language program.
Through these stops, the district aims to get students to and from school on time while reducing fuel and maintenance costs.
Yet two weeks into the school year, Melissa Rooney has been driving her son, a junior at DSA, back home from school everyday. While the morning bus arrives at the “express stop” mostly on time, she said, the bus meant to take him home usually gets to school at least 30 minutes late.
“The whole thing has just become a nightmare, a logistical nightmare,” she told The 9th Street Journal in a phone interview.
Rooney’s son, Kieran, expressed his disappointment with the district.
“It feels like this whole system that we have [with] express bus stops was meant to counteract the issue of late buses,” he said. “But it just feels like nothing’s changed, and it’s just back to the same normal.”
Busing woes have hounded the district for years now due to longstanding driver vacancies. At the height of the crisis, members of the Durham Public Schools administration even volunteered to drive the buses themselves, while parents were asked to transport their children to school once a week for up to a month.
Last January, the district hired 33 new bus drivers. Jessica Simo, the parent of an eighth-grader at DSA, said the situation has since improved.
“This school year for us has been better so far,” Simo said. Her daughter, who missed first-period classes due to busing delays last year, now arrives at school on time.
However, Simo also voiced concerns that not all parents can alter their plans or work schedules to meet the demands of the “express stops” system.
“If you have relative privileges in the family –– they have parents in the house, their jobs are flexible — you can figure it out,” Simo said. “I don’t know if that’s the experience for other families.”
Some parents have also reported inefficiencies in the assigned bus routes.
Katie Rudd, a DSA parent, said her daughter’s after-school bus “basically goes all over town”: from DSA to E. K. Powe Elementary, then to Forest Hills, and finally to Murray-Massenburg Elementary in South Durham.
Tuesday and Wednesday, her daughter’s after-school bus has failed to show, Rudd said. Instead, another bus already in service is assigned to cover the additional route, further compounding wait times and ride length.
Sometimes, multiple buses show up at the same stop, generating confusion over which one students should take to get to school, she added.
Robyn Siesky, a new DSA parent of two, offered a different perspective on the busing delays. Despite 20 to 30 minute delays over the first few days, buses now arrive either on time or up to ten minutes late at morning pick-up, she said.
“I chose to put my kids in a magnet school…instead of using our neighborhood public school that would’ve [been] right down the street,” Siesky said, adding that she was grateful for the district’s free busing services.
“We need to give the system a little more grace,” she urged.
In an emailed statement to The 9th Street Journal, Crystal Roberts, the district’s spokesperson, said administration was monitoring the new system and continually making adjustments based on community feedback.
“We ask for patience from our families while we address delays that naturally occur at the beginning of the school year,” she wrote. “… We remain encouraged by the implementation thus far and will continue using operational data and stakeholder feedback to guide our decisions and make improvements throughout the pilot.”
For parents like Rooney, however, the outlook is not so positive. With two other children who have graduated from DSA, she is no stranger to the district’s persistent busing challenges.
“I agree with giving them a chance, but I feel like I’ve been giving them a chance for 10 years now,” she said.
On Thursday afternoon, Rooney’s phone rang. It was her son, Kieran, asking her to drive him home from school again. The Edulog Parent Portal, a bus tracker app, indicated that his bus was still at Southpoint and set to be 40 minutes late.
With no alternative in sight, she got in her car to pick him up.
Parents and families who have questions, concerns, or feedback regarding Express Stops are encouraged to contact the DPS Transportation Department at [email protected].
Comment on this story at [email protected].
