On Thursday night, a power outage left the Durham Public Schools board of education meeting with few lights and no airflow.
That bunker vibe was perhaps appropriate for the four and a half hour long marathon meeting in which staff introduced a rotational bus service plan to provide transportation to students for four days a week. The plan is meant to reduce at least some of the chaos of recent months, when increased ridership and a shortage of drivers have left some students waiting hours for buses that never arrive.
Under the plan, each of the district’s 800 routes is sorted into one of five groups that will not receive bus service on a single predetermined day each week. Routes in group A, for instance, will not receive bus service on Mondays. That schedule is available on the district’s website. The rotational service will run from December 2 until at least the winter holiday recess.
The rotational plan, which is an acknowledgment of the district’s failure to fulfill its basic obligation to students, is far from a real fix to the crisis. But it is an attempt to reduce at least some of the chaos by acknowledging the current limits of DPS staffing and allowing families to plan ahead.
It will also allow daily service for those who receive exceptional children and McKinney-Vento (homeless student) services.
Mathew Palmer, senior executive director of school planning and operational services, called it “a very temporary, tactical patch that gives us the time for longer term solutions.”
“I never want to take my eye off the ball, [which] is to get every kid to school on time on a consistent basis. That is the long term goal for all of us.” Palmer told the board and the audience. He said that the process to get a trainee ready to drive for the distinct “is 35 steps long,” but that there are six drivers who are “just about ready to join our fleet.”
No one at the meeting was too thrilled with the plan. But the parents who showed up to the meeting said it was at least an improvement.
Lakewood Elementary School parent Jenna Crowther called it “not ideal,” but added that “such a schedule would allow our school community to more proactively organize to fill the gaps caused by the crisis.”
Parents also pushed for more consistency in communications.
“During COVID, Governor [Andrew] Cuomo was on TV every night explaining what was happening, what we still didn’t know, and what we could expect tomorrow. That’s the standard I would like to hold DPS Board of Ed to on this issue,” said David Klein, a parent at E.K. Powe Elementary, who noted that he was quoting his wife.
Board member Natalie Beyer wondered if the rotational service will need to extend into the new year. “I think it may be a bridge, but it may need to be a longer bridge,” she said. If so, “I think families will appreciate at least having that information as soon as we can get that to them.”
Even when every single student has consistent bus service five days a week, the district will still have to work to truly remedy the crisis.
“I’m curious to know how much instructional time was missed, and by who,” said board member Bettina Umstead, referencing the possible inequitable impact of the crisis. “That’s a different conversation, I think, for a different day,” she added.
Ultimately, the bus crisis has sucked time and energy away from other topics—including approving higher pay for social workers with masters degrees and implementing better climate education—that stakeholders have urged the board to consider.
“Parents are tired,” said board chair Millicent Rogers. “I’m a parent, I’m a board member, I’m tired. You all are tired, Mr. Palmer, all the transportation staff, bus drivers…I want to acknowledge that y’all are also working tirelessly, and we’re grateful for that work, and we can see that coming to fruition in these presentations and as we move forward.”
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].