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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > August > 11 > Entry
School begins smoothly in Dayton
(Students wait to board an RTA bus outside Stivers School for the Arts Monday.)
As city high schools opened for the school year Monday without bus service, most kids appeared to make it to class on time and with relatively few problems.
At Belmont and Dunbar high schools, officials and students reported more cars dropping off students than normal along with crowded city buses but overall few had major concerns.
Deputy Superintendent Lori Ward, who oversees transportation in the district, said she had no significant bad reports following the start of classes. School officials will continue to monitor traffic at the schools and attendance during the week as students settle into new routines.
“There appears to be a lot more automobiles, but will that keep up or is it a sign of the time?” she said. “A lot of kids like to have a ride to school on the first day. We need to watch the week in full to get a better picture.”
Interim Superintendent Kurt Stanic said he visited at the bus garage at 5 a.m. and was pleased with how the day was going by mid-morning.
“People have been cooperative,” he said. “There are still concerns. It’s early. I want to see attendance at the end of the day.”
Busing was first eliminated last summer to save money after a levy defeat in May of 2007 but the city, county and Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority helped raise funds to restore the service in time for the start of school.
This summer, those partners said they could not offer funds and the district again dropped high school bus service, which is not required by state law. The RTA estimated up to 4,000 students could have to pay their own way to school on city buses, many of them on regular routes as fewer “limited service” buses going directly to schools are on the road this year.
The district continues to struggle with deep budget cuts and the school board has promised a new levy try in November. Bus service is not expected to be restored this year.
Students said RTA bus routes were crowded. Dunbar senior Edward Brown rode a city bus from his Five Oaks neighborhood downtown, where he switched to a limited service route that connects to Dunbar.
“It made everything harder,” he said. “There were people standing and sitting on the steps.”
Tobeshia Jones, a freshman at Belmont, said driver on her bus from North Main Street to downtown did a good job controlling the large crowd of students mixed in with the regular adult passengers.
“It was a little rowdy,” she said. “It was really full. But the bus driver could control them.”
(Image credit: Teesha McClam, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Comments
By Honeybee
August 11, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
My child goes to one of Dayton’s H.S.’ and I was not going to pay RTA 25 or 35 dollars into ll days of the month.(RTA Not pro-rating) I don’t mind paying(its going to be hard) as long as he gets to school safe. I luck out that a neighbor can drop-off and pick-up my child with her children for the time being. What are they going to do about people that cannot afford $35 and month plus about 5 dollars a day lunch(not free for H.S.). I work, pay taxes, two-income household and still will struggle. I hope I survive and able to feed my family but.By lb
August 11, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this
what’s the big deal of paying $25/month for a bus pass? People spend more than that buying their cartons of cigarettes,lottery tickets, or beer! If parents cut down on those expenses, I bet they could afford a bus ticket!By painfultruth
August 11, 2008 2:09 PM | Link to this
Oh wow, the kids have to make their own arrangements to get to school? Tragic! What about all the previous generations that had to do the same? Looks like most of us actually went to school becasue we were told to do so! Gee, what a concept. If you have kids, it’s YOUR responsibility to make sure they go. They aren’t MY kids; they are YOUR kids. Don’t expect the school system to babysit or raise your kids! This is an issue of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Don’t like it? Move to Cuba!By Danny
August 11, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this
Guess what folks, I am 60 years old and I walked up the Shedborn Ave. hill to Kemp Elementary before there was a Shedborn Ave. and it was still a field. There also was no bus service to Wilbur Wright and I either walked or paid for the City Transit bus. I survived!By awful
August 11, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this
This is awful that people that are on their way to work have to deal with these disrespectful teenagers. I rode the bus today and goodness, I do not even know where to begin. I have a 16 year old and thank god in a district that provides transportation. My son knows better to act up around adults. I always get reports of people I know that have seen him around that say he is a very respectful teenager onlike most these teenagers.By Mary
August 11, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this
I happened to notice young school children riding public transportation in Japan when I was there in 2001 (on 9-11). I could see some positive benefits resulting from the arrangement. Mingling young students and older people on their way to work, etc. might have some positive cultural benefits in the long term. I also acknowledge there could be some problems, but there are also problems with cramming young people on buses by themselves and one adult bus driver.