Wake superintendent responds to busing complaints

Cary, N.C. — Wake County public schools' Superintendent Tony Tata held a news conference Tuesday to respond to the outcry about back-to-school busing issues.

On the Web Wake schools' busing feedback form

New bus routes that made children late to school and home got the start of the traditional calendar school year in Wake County off to a bumpy start on Monday. Parents were still reporting problems on Tuesday.

"I wanted to ensure families that we hear every concern, we're taking every concern seriously and we’re working hard to make things work more smoothly," Tata said. "Today was a marked improvement over yesterday."

"Your child's safety and security are foremost in our minds as we do this," Tata added. "We appreciate the contact and communication, and keep letting us know until we get it right."

More than 900 Wake County school buses transport 75,000 to 80,000 students per day and make about 25,000 stops. Dozens of buses were taken out of service this year to cut costs, maintain efficiency and keep state funding, according to school officials.

"As big as a county that Wake County is and how much we have grown, we do grow to expect this year over year," district spokeswoman Cris Mulder said of the bus problems.

Parents said communication would have made a huge difference. They said the district never alerted them to bus delays and the possibility that they children might be hours late.

Mulder said checking and double-checking each bus takes time. She asked that parents bear with it and said that the situation should improve each day because of the feedback they're providing.

"We are able to monitor and track and find out what buses are making their stops on time," she said.

Parent Neil Gettinger said he had numerous problems getting his three children to and from their schools. The two buses did not show up for his middle-schooler and two high-schoolers Monday morning.

On Tuesday morning, the middle school bus was 30 minutes late, and the high school bus drove right past the bus stop, he said.

"We’re fundamentally failing these kids if we can’t get them to the school," Gettinger said. "I think the system’s really big and, as a parent, we don’t understand all the intricacies of it, but we don’t care, we need our kids going to school."

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This is just the bus system. This doesn't even tough the drama parents, I included, have gone through with the choice program. Traditional calendar, modified calendar, year-round calendar with 4 tracks...what in the world? They put my older daughter in a traditional school that wasn't even on her list and my other on a totally different yr round school. You have to go to Cary to do anything now and wait with the massive amount of parents for 3 hours for them to explain why they need to bus your child over 40 miles away. I have heard countless stories of wake county sending children miles and miles away to school and then you add the bus debacle on top of it. I don't care what anyone says. This is a complete and utter mess from A to Z.

frsandi
September 6, 2012 6:42 p.m.

Some people think we should not be upset and that this happens every year. I have lived in NC for 7 months and it has been pure nightmarish with Wake County school system. This bus fiasco is just more icing on the cake. A lot of parents rely on their older children to pick up the younger ones so yes it is a HUGE deal when buses are hours late. I have lived in states all over the US and I HAVE NEVER EVER EVER seen a school system or bus system with this many problems. Just because you are accustomed to it does not mean we shouldn't be screaming for something to be done about it. Complacency is why things don't change. To find out that the problems have been going on for years is shocking. Bus drivers are saying this is the worst it's ever been. What happens to a problem when it is not addressed? It's just grown into a bigger problem and now here we are. Maybe if Wake County had done something about it yrs ago we wouldn't be at this tragedy now. I feel for anyone dealing with this stress

frsandi
September 6, 2012 6:34 p.m.

http://www.wral.com/news/education/wake_county_schools/story/11510198/

I'm the mother of this child in the linked story. I don't know who made a comment that this is not a big deal and to wait for them to work out the kinks. This is a HUGE deal because this involves OUR CHILDREN! These are not isolated incidents. We have parents holding on to their jobs with both hands and having to leave work to go find their children. There is ABSOLUTELY NO COMMUNICATION from the bus system on delays. You can't get through and when you do they are no help.

Yes we need to rally, picket, do whatever we have to. WE are the majority! Our tax dollars support the school system. We should not be told by Wake County that we have to deal with this kind of system breakdown and they seem helpless to have any control over it at all. I feel like they've tied their hands and in doing so have tied our hands as parents as well.

I reiterate that these are our CHILDREN who are under the care of competent adults.

frsandi
September 6, 2012 6:28 p.m.

LoL hours late to and from school... thats a mess. if you feel like this behavior is OK in any instance.. your parenting card needs to be pulled. Lets put things in a different perspective... if you drove your kids to and from school and you were late dropping them off, the child would be penalized.. and late picking them up, you would be penalized (some schools charge by the minute/hour for late-pick -ups) Parents i beg you to continue to complain about this as someone has to care about these kids... and now-a-days most people don't.. including Teachers, principals, and BUS DRIVERS

bawilliams816
August 29, 2012 5:24 p.m.

Those of you who do not want to hold the school officials accountable for incredibly poor planning concern me. Yes, new procedures are expected to have a FEW glitches, but this is a system-wide breakdown and that is poor leadership.

It's not like the management of the school bus system did not know what roads they would be traveling on or not have access to a database where parents had already informed the system of whether their children would be using the buses or not.

Public school systems across the state are not improving, they are deteriorating and yet hide behind skewed numbers of so-called improvement within their schools.

This bus fiasco is just another example of poor management and a reason why it is becoming increasing difficult for a parent to trust the system to give our children a good education. If they can't get this right, what else are they inept at doing.

ncpilot2
August 29, 2012 3:14 p.m.