Last month, the Durham Public Schools Board of Education approved the use of express stops and family responsibility zones as two replacements for the current—and messy—rotational bus plan which only guarantees transportation for students four days a week.
On Thursday, though, as the board huddled on the eve of a just-announced snow day, Chief Operating Officer Larry Webb told the electeds that express stops are not needed after all—at least for now. Rotational service will end after January 17 as planned, he said, partly because of the success of new recruitment efforts.
But the rollback also seemed to be a response to the community backlash against express stops, which would have required some families at three magnet schools to transport their children to a nearby DPS school that they do not attend where the students would then catch a bus to their magnet school.
Earlier in the meeting, and at the board’s meeting on Monday, Superintendent Anthony Lewis shared a slew of negative responses to a survey sent to families who would be impacted by express stops.
“If I was able to get my kids to a stop outside of our neighborhood at the times needed for this, I would not need a bus at all!!” wrote one parent. “Unless these express stops are walkable, I.e. WITHIN our neighborhood, we have to choose between our jobs and our kids’ chosen school. Nice.”
While the express stop plan is tabled for now, Webb said that it is set to be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year, and that the families currently applying to magnet schools have been notified.
Despite some board objections, family responsibility zones (certain areas within 1.5 miles of schools where families would not receive bus service) are still set to take effect on January 21 after rotational bus service ends.
Board member Wendell Tabb came out swinging against the idea of sending children walking through more dangerous parts of the city without any supervision. Under the current plan, any student older than pre-K would be allowed to walk or bike alone.
“I love Durham, but we have to be realistic. Some areas that we’re talking about, we don’t even want to drive down those areas. So how can we allow kids to walk in areas that we won’t even drive down ourselves?” He added that, in looking at potential walk zones, he “went down a couple streets where there were pit bulls running loose.”
Tabb and board member Emily Chávez both worried that the rollout of family responsibility zones would be too soon, and board member Joy Harrell Goff mused about the possibility of keeping rotational coverage.
“We’re trading—in my head—one set of eggs that are rotting for another set of eggs that are rotting,” said Harrell Goff. “I feel like we got one bandaid that’s not quite working yet. Do we switch one for the other? I don’t know.”
Board chair Millicent Rogers reminded members that rotational service, which the board already extended past the original December 20 expiration date, was never meant to be a permanent solution.
“How do we move forward into a place where we can get more consistent transportation for the most people possible if we push back on a choice that we made in December?” asked Rogers. “I think we have a team that’s stepped up and been ready and willing to do the things that we’ve asked them to do. We have to give an opportunity to see if their plan can be effective.”
Even the administrators who spearheaded the plan, though, didn’t pretend that it would fix everything.
“This is our best, worst, solution for this unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in,” said Deputy Superintendent Tanya Giovanni.
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Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at chase@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.