Published: September 30, 2009 10:37 pm      

Parents still upset about busing

Get official notification about boundary decision

Lloyd — Families whose children attend middle school across attendance district boundaries in the Greenup County School District got the official news Wednesday they will have to make changes.

The letters told the families what they already know: that as of Oct. 15 they may continue to send their children to the middle school across the boundary but not on the bus.

They have known the day is coming since early September but they’re upset nonetheless.

One says she plans to homeschool and another will drive her son while she continues to look for a way to get the policy reversed.

A reversal is unlikely to happen. A district spokeswoman said the policy is “a done deal.”

The families involved live on the McKell Middle School side of an attendance boundary that roughly bisects the district. Most of them live closer to Wurtland, the district’s other middle school. Some say they prefer Wurtland because of the proximity and some believe it is a better school.

Until recently their children had ridden district buses to the school of their choice; the buses picked children up at their homes and dropped them off at Greenup County High, where they took a second bus to the middle school.

Under the policy about to go into effect, their children may ride the bus only to the school on their side of the boundary. The families still may send their children to Wurtland but would have to provide transportation.

“I’ll homeschool him,” said Charlotte Coffey, whose son is in seventh grade.

Sending her son to McKell, which is 40 miles from her home compared to 15 from Wurtland, would mean a 90-minute bus ride, Coffey said. With three other children in elementary school and a sick parent she is caring for, she can’t drive him to school, she said.

Brenda Wells, who was on the committee that voted unanimously in favor of the policy, said she plans to keep her son at Wurtland and drive him there.

Although she voted for the policy, she is upset and believes the two parent members of the committee were maneuvered into their votes.

Wells had believed the committee was to have confined its deliberations to the safety issue created by students changing buses at the high school. Instead, she said, other committee members brought up unrelated issues, such as length of bus rides.

Parent members were unprepared to dispute those issues, she said.

She suspects the district’s real interest is in boosting enrollment numbers at McKell.

“That’s completely false ... That absolutely was not considered at all,” said district spokeswoman Scarlet Shoemaker.

The longer bus rides may not have been planned as part of committee discussions, but came up as legitimate issues, she said.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.