In the face of an ongoing shortage of bus drivers, Durham Public Schools is ending bus service for some students, to restore it for others.
The school board voted Thursday to implement changes to busing that will reduce service for students who attend three secondary magnet schools and some students at 21 elementary schools. Under the new strategy, about 2,000 students will lose daily bus service.
Durham Public Schools’ transportation administrators said these changes are necessary so the district can end rotational busing. Since early December, the district has reduced its bus service to four days a week for most bus riders as a temporary measure. The district is short about 30 bus drivers, and it takes three to six months to train and license new candidates.
The board voted 6-to-1 to approve family responsibility zones and 4-to-2 to approve express bus stops that will begin after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Wendell Tabb was present for only one of the votes.
I’m very worried that we’re shifting who can’t get to school.
DPS Board member Bettina Umstead
Board member Bettina Umstead was the only member to vote against family responsibility zones. She was joined by board chair Millicent Rogers in voting against express bus stops.
“I’m very worried that we’re shifting who can’t get to school,” Umstead said.
The family responsibility zones are a geographic area within 1.5 miles of a school in which students will be expected to walk or find other transportation. District officials selected the zones, and which elementary schools will have them, based on safety considerations and walkability of the neighborhood. The district does not plan to publicly release maps of the zones. Many school districts employ walk zones, and DPS officials said it is best practice not to publish them for safety reasons.
Administrators have shared the maps with the school board. Board member Natalie Beyer indicated that the zones are smaller than a 1.5 mile radius of each affected school.
“Typically they are small and pretty close to school with a lot of safety considerations taken into account,” Beyer said.
School officials plan to communicate directly with families affected by the new family responsibility zones. District officials said they hope to work with Durham city staff to create an online geo-locator tool for families to determine if their address falls within a zone, but that could take months to complete.
The magnet express stops will affect students at Durham School of the Arts, Rogers-Herr Middle School, and The School for Creative Studies. This strategy would end neighborhood bus service for about 1,100 students at those schools, instead creating bus stops at other schools where those students can take the bus to their magnet school.
The school board was initially divided Thursday on implementing express bus stops midway through this school year, and the first vote on the measure failed. The board considered waiting to implement the plan next fall, so families know what to expect when they apply for magnet programs. After transportation officials clarified that action on this proposal would be necessary to end rotational busing in January, the board passed it. The board gave the stipulation that the district must provide more information at their next meeting, including a grievance process for students who can no longer get to their school.
The school board called a special meeting for January 9 to further discuss transportation issues.
New plans have unanswered questions, but rotational busing came with its own difficulties
Rotational busing has caused headaches for many families, some of whom spoke during the board’s public comment period.
“I’m a single mother, a service worker, and I don’t have a car,” Tashira Smith told the school board. “On Friday, which is my rotational day, I can either pay $15 each way for Uber or Lyft to get my kids to school, or I can choose to leave them at home.”
Still, for others, rotational busing has provided more consistent service for students who did not have a dedicated bus driver for much of the fall semester.
“At Creekside Elementary School, the rotational bus schedule has immensely helped, reducing the number of students that are absent or staying very, very late,” said Rebecca McDonald, the mother of a kindergartner.
School board members have requested attendance data to see how rotational busing is affecting absenteeism, as well as details on the demographics of students who are affected by the new busing plans.
“We don’t have that at the ready,” said DPS’s Director of Strategic Initiatives Mathew Palmer, but district staff hope to present some data at a future meeting.
Board members also raised questions about how district staff will ensure that students have appropriate coats and shoes to walk to school; how the district will support community efforts to carpool or walk in groups; and whether the city can provide more crossing guards near elementary schools.
The school district has a webpage to provide information on planning safe routes to school, including a guide on setting up a community program to walk to school in a group.
Durham Association of Educators held a rally outside the board meeting
Before Thursday’s school board meeting, the Durham Association of Educators (DAE) held a rally and presented a petition to board members signed by 147 transportation workers with “emergency demands” to address the district’s busing crisis. The demands are:
- To continue having transportation supervisors fill in as drivers on bus routes
- To improve route efficiency
- To offer transportation staff opportunities to receive bonuses
- To give transportation staff access to school buildings during their breaks, because many drivers wait in their personal vehicles between shifts
The school board discussed the need for bus drivers to have access to schools to use restrooms. The district’s two bus depots have two bathrooms each for about 75 drivers, transportation staff said. Board members suggested having a clear system for bus drivers to identify themselves at schools to get access to building facilities.
Transportation officials told the board that rotational busing has allowed transportation supervisors to return to their primary duties of improving routes and answering phone calls from families. They said having supervisors continue to fill in as drivers would have a negative domino effect on bus operations.
Meet and Confer policy between DAE and DPS remains in limbo
Throughout the past year, DAE has advocated for Durham Public Schools to establish a formal “meet and confer” policy with DAE that would give school employees more input in the district’s decision making. Although this issue wasn’t on the board’s agenda Thursday night, it was a central topic at DAE’s rally.
A meet and confer policy is an alternative to collective bargaining in cases where employees are barred by law from negotiating a contract with their employer – which is the case for public sector employees in North Carolina. With a meet and confer policy in place, the employer agrees to meet regularly with employee representatives to seek input on their working conditions.
“We’re here today after a long, unprecedented year of crisis in DPS,” said DAE President Mika Twietmeyer. “It has been 11 months, and we are still waiting, and meet and confer isn’t even on the agenda for tonight.”
School board members indicated in past meetings that they anticipated passing a meet and confer policy this year, once district officials could bring a proposal to them that complies with state law.
“From my seat, it’s not a matter of if, but when we will pass a meet and confer policy,” DPS Superintendent Anthony Lewis said at a September board meeting.
If DAE succeeds in reaching a formal meet and confer agreement with Durham Public Schools, it would be the first school district in the state to have such an agreement between school administrators and employees.
“This is the long term fix, not only to this crisis, it’s the way that we avoid the next pay debacle, the next [special education] lawsuit, the next wave of resignations,” said Anna Benfield, an occupational therapist and DAE Board member.
