[grundle]

In Kentucky, school buses brought children home six hours late. Children who needed to eat for medial reasons were prohibited from doing so. If people want to see a place where children are truly in danger, this is the place to look. What the heck is wrong with these idiots?

[mewzilla]

Publik skrewls are state sanctioned child abuse.

Parents need to band together, pool their brains and money, and find a while to homeschool their kids.

[CheshireTheCat]

Aren’t there enough bus drivers to go around?

Or did they go to the same place where all the airline pilots and aircraft mechanics have gone?

[SaveFerris]

(The last bus riders weren’t dropped off until 9:58 p.m.)

Hey, it was on the same day of the week at least!

C’mon man!!

[txlurker]

They have had to cancel school until they figure it out! Superintendent makes big bucks!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“It’s not right that our children are being punished over something that JCPS has done.”

What in the world does that mean?

[hardspunned]

The obvious reason to be terrified of putting a kid on an American school bus is the fear the bus actually gets to school and your child’s mind is further turned to mush.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

No explanation provided on why the delays happened.

Another reason not to use public schools.

[Leaning Right]

In my neck of the woods there is a severe bus driver shortage. Part of that is due to the pay. Most of it is due to the lack of discipline on the buses. A few kids scream, throw things, bully other kids, start fights, etc. And nothing is ever done to them.

Who the heck would want to drive a bus under those conditions?

So this fall, there will be all the problems described in the article.

[Bratch]

JCPS hopes to return students to school by the 'middle of next week' as it works to fix 'transportation disaster'

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools is planning to return students to class sometime in the middle of next week as it works to mitigate the issues that led to some students spending hours on a bus, getting home as late as 10 p.m. on the first day of the year.

Superintendent Marty Pollio said in a news conference Friday that the district will have an updated timeline for parents on Saturday "by the absolute latest."

"I believe, looking at it and the things that we need to implement with our bus drivers, it could be the middle of next week," he said. "That's what we are shooting for right now. We will have a final decision on that in the next 24 hours ..."

In a recorded video message early Thursday morning, Pollio called the Wednesday a "transportation disaster" Wednesday amid new bus routes and school start times. At 5:13 a.m. Thursday, JCPS parents got a text alert that said school would be canceled on Thursday, Aug. 10, and Friday, Aug. 11, an effort by the district to fix the issues.

Pollio said he believes the district will have "solutions in place" when students return to school. 

"When we come back ... it's going to be much more efficient, and our communication will be much better with families and schools," he said.

Pollio said the issues were multi-faceted and complex, from the implementation of a new student assignment plan, brand new bus routes for a fleet of drivers already stretched thin and a new schedule of bus stops leaving kids unsure on where they need to be.

"The first day of school is extremely important," Pollio said Friday. "It's just shame it has to be overshadowed by the transportation problem that happened after school."

JCPS recently started using a program developed by a firm called AlphaRoute out of Massachusetts to help with planning routes and assigning bus stop locations. The program — developed by graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — uses artificial intelligence to generate the routes with the intent of reducing the number of routes. JCPS had 730 routes last year, and that was cut to 600 beginning this year.

Jefferson County school board member Linda Duncan said she believes the district spent $265,000 for the AlphaRoute system. Pollio said representatives from AlphaRoute will be in town over the weekend to help JCPS work in implementing its plan.

Pollio called the new bus plan as well as all the new start times an "unprecedented" amount of change to start the year, reiterating that not as an excuse but to emphasize the hurdles the first day brought.

"We should have anticipated those problems better than we did," he said. "... Once again, I'll say that's on me and my team."

Currently, he said bus drivers get directions for their routes — many of which were brand new Wednesday — on pieces of paper telling them where to turn. Pollio said they're looking into getting GPS for drivers, though that's not a solution they can realistically implement soon.

John Stovall, president of the union that represents bus drivers for JCPS said he believes classes should be canceled through next week to help sort out the logistics. Stovall said he's heard frustration and anger from his drivers that were out as late as 10 p.m. Wednesday. He said the drivers had no input on the new routes, fearing they wouldn't make it in time.

"They're going from one end of town all the way to the other end of town all for one student," he said. "... This is not going to work. They feel like they've been set up for failure.

UPS offered its expertise in transportation and logistics Thursday morning to help JCPS sort out busing delays, UPS spokesman Jim Mayer said.

"We have had a conversation about whether it would be useful for us to offer help," Mayer told WDRB News.

Neither the company nor the school district was able to say whether any collaboration will materialize.

"We appreciate the strong community partnership we have with UPS and we are setting up a meeting with them," JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said in an email.

[Bratch]

Here's an idea...

.... instead of busing the children all over the county, bus the teachers.

[ronniesgal]

the yoga latte mommies in our neighborhood were upset cause the school bus driver turned off her tracker.
Thank God their kids were trackable thru their smartphones. /s

[windcliff]

ping

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the other articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

And no doubt, most of those kids will be on the bus the next day.

[Pajamajan]

Lawsuits incoming.

[Sequoyah101]

This failure superintendent of screwls just got over a 25% raise.

How can a screwl board be so free with public money?

Board members voted to increase Pollio’s base salary to $350,244 based on his performance, up from his current contract’s base salary of $276,000.

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/education/jcps-dr-marty-pollio-performance-review-salary-increase-jefferson-county-public-schools/417-b8a575f1-0ea1-40d4-ac62-6b5a2fe1279b

His first problem for me is calling a child “kid”. They are children or a child not a kid.

Buses are bedlam, always have been. Children that are unruly should be put off the bus or not allowed to ride until they can behave.

They computerized the system. System “working on very advanced technology”. How dumb.

Get on, sit down, strap in and STFU.

[I want the USA back]

In some areas they arrest parents who let their kids walk home from school. Clearly, someone in the school system needs to be arrested for putting kids in danger this way.

All part of the breaking of the parent-son-daughter bond and replacing parents with the State.

[PGR88]

Public school union bureaucrats excel at nothing.

[Gene Eric]

dementia

[Mean Daddy]

When my son went to junior high on his first day, they put him on the wrong bus home. Called & spoke to the asst. principal & he told me I was overreacting. After we got everything sorted out, I called & talked to the principal & told him going forward I would involve the police. Got my son a flip phone for emergencies.

Fast forward about two years later and the asst. principal had moved to another school in another town & was fired for pulling the pants off of a young girl climbing the stairs to a bus.