CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools families impacted by bus stop changes to some schools are asking the district to scrap its plans.
Next school year, around 5,000 students attending 11 magnet schools will transition to express bus routes.
Express stops consolidate current bus stops in some neighborhoods into fewer centralized stops with the goal of getting students to and from school faster.
The district said it anticipates saving thousands of dollars and drastically reducing drive times for students by hours. But despite these pros, some families are arguing they are being disproportionality impacted.
Martha Valencia's family was impacted by express bus stops when the program was first implemented in 2010. She had help from her then-husband and was also a stay-at-home mom.
"Another couple that lived in the same neighborhood, between the four of us, will take turns picking up and dropping in the morning and picking up the kids," Valencia said.
While she found a way to make it work then, she says right now it won’t work for her child who attends the Northwest School of the Arts.
"I don't have the help of anyone. I don't know anyone who goes to this school and I am completely on my own. So I rely on the bus," Valencia said.
She also notes that getting to school on time is key, especially because Valencia's daughter is attending a school that enriches her interests.
"My child doesn't come here just to finish high school," Valencia said. "My child is here because she's interested in visual arts."
A group of parents, impacted in similar ways, are trying to stop CMS from going forward with the program.
The district said it sympathizes with families but said it has no choice but to make the change.
"Considering the budget implications and the driver shortage that we deal with on a daily basis, this is something that we have to do, we just don't want to get to the point where we're not able to offer this at all," Adam Johnson, CMS's transportation services executive director said.
Johnson said CMS currently has 43 bus driver vacancies in addition to 45 drivers on approved leave.
"Daily absences can range from 40 to 50 each day with drivers," Johnson said. "So that could equate to trying to cover close to 100 or 150 buses each day."
Johnson said without the changes, it could lead to students and parents being on the hook for getting to school on short notice.
"We don't want to say to the family at six or seven o'clock at night, or early the next morning, 'hey, we just can't run a bus and find a way to get your kids to and from school,'" Johnson said.
North Carolina law mandates traditional schools to provide busing for students enrolled.
"We're funded from state to get kids to and from school each day safely and on time," Johnson said.
The law states each public school bus needs to be routed so that the bus passes within one mile of the home of each student assigned to that bus. Anyone who lives one and one-half miles or more from the school to which they are assigned is eligible for school bus transportation.
Despite being eligible for transportation there are some circumstances where schools can deny this service:
- The law states the district can revise bus routes if deemed necessary and, "may revise such allocation and assignment of school buses in accordance with the changing transportation needs and conditions."
- The district can "assign an additional bus or buses to a school or withdraw a bus or buses from a school in such local school administrative unit."
Johnson said his team had a consultation with staff at Wake County Schools on how they're dealing with busing to magnet campuses.
“They have 42 schools that are offering some type of express stop model," Johnson said. "They actually have more than 13 schools that they call Parent Provided -- they offer no transportation to those magnet schools.”
Valencia says she and other families are questioning why students assigned at other magnets or their local schools aren't getting services reduced.
"Why are a group of children targeted? Because that's what it feels like. Because all of us pay taxes," Valencia said.
CMS said the change came down to focusing on high schools, costs, and routes with the most miles.
"They provide the most impact for just a small group of students," Johnson said.
Some families may have to make the decision to take their kids out of the magnet programs.
"My children can't have the opportunity to go and continue going to [the] school that they chose, that they already invested so much," Valencia said.
The district said it’s working to find ways for kids to get to express stops. That includes rideshares and partnerships with local area transit systems.
"We want to do as much as we can between now and school starts to try to see what we can do to help them," Johnson said. "With our park and recs department that works with public libraries to offer additional sites that may not be a CMS school that may offer some additional support for families that are not able to get through a CMS Express."
None of these solutions are guaranteed.
"It may make more sense for them to choose their own school or choose another school within themselves that they could get transportation that wouldn't require them to get expressed," Johnson said.
But ultimately there’s no guarantee every family will get a solution that works for them.
"We just have to consider all of the kids, not just our magnet families, but we want to work with our identified magnet families just to see what we can do to help them to try to make that work," Adam said.
The express but stops are expected to go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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