DPS rounds out Rotational Bus Service, Express Stops delayed

BY LUCIA HARRINGTON
​UPDATED 1/11
     A new year has started, but DPS is still at work on enduring transportation issues.
     Rotational Bus Service, set to end January 17th, means students do not have bus service one day a week, with families being responsible for getting their kids to school on those days. Family Responsibility Zones (FRZs) will go into place next, along with efforts towards the district’s larger goal of bus driver retention and recruitment. Express Bus Stops have been delayed to the 2025-26 school year.

PHOTO CREDIT: LUCIA HARRINGTON
Students get on the bus after dismissal. Many days, there are students left waiting for their bus as late as 5:30, 2 hours after dismissal.

     “[Rotational bus service] is attempting to be equitable… rather than a child missing multiple days, not being able to have bus transportation, that hopefully it's only one day a week,” Cornelius Redfearn, DSA’s Assistant Principal, explained. 
     Before the implementation of this measure, some groups of students were not provided bus transportation for weeks in a row, due to 17 DPS buses not having reliable coverage. At the school board meeting in November, parents voiced complaints about elementary school kids left in the cold for hours, and their concern about inequity.
    “On average, for the six buses that serve Creekside, the disruption is about 25 percent of the time, but that goes up to 43 percent of the time for minority and lower income students,” Rebecca McDonald, a Creekside parent, stated at the board meeting on 11/21.
     The transportation department, in response, rolled out Rotational Bus Service only a week later from the meeting, immediately after thanksgiving break. With this short term solution, both resources and shortages are spread in a more even manner. However, one day a week and in some cases more without bus service adds stress and challenges for many parents.
     “It’s impacting families, certainly, because you have working families… [who] are having to make accommodations for their jobs in many cases,” Redfearn commented.
     Those students whose parents work or do not have cars don’t go to school on days without service, putting students of a lower socioeconomic status at a further disadvantage in their education. Additionally, having different routes is challenging for bus drivers, taking them in unfamiliar places.
     “My route that I’ll do tomorrow is a rotation route… they try to squeeze me on a bus that I know nothing about, I gotta go out there in the dark, with a piece of paper- that is very difficult and unsafe!” Paulissa Pegram, a bus driver for DPS, asserted.
     While driving a bus is a difficult job, many drivers stay for the community they are able to build with the kids they drive to school each day. The rotational bus service interferes with that basis of comfort for students.
     “My kids are like, ‘Ms. P, why aren’t you picking us up?’, and I’m like, ‘Baby, I don’t make the rules, I wish I could,’” Pegram shared.
    It is unclear how many bus drivers have left since the implementation of this service. It is also unclear if it is possible to raise wages for bus drivers, or why DPS is struggling with bus driver shortages more than other districts. DPS administration announced on 1/9 that their current plan is to work on retention, and that their recruitment efforts are proving successful.
     “The best recruiting is keeping the people we have… and that is the tip of the spear of what we are going to do to improve the work conditions, and keep our staff members working,” Larry Webb, Chief Operating Officer, stated.

      The exact effect of the rotational bus service on student absenteeism is not clear, because DPS is not keeping track of absences that are due to the changes. This was debated during the January 9 work session.
     “In the future, we’re not going to know if the decision to move forward on the family responsibility zones was the right call, if we don’t have the data on how many kids are missing school,” board member Jessica Carda-Auten explained.
     Importantly, at the January 9 school board work session, administration revealed that the “Express Bus Stop” plan will no longer be implemented this school year. They recommended it take place in the 25-26 school year. 
     “With the resources and acquisitions of those new drivers that we talked about, we believe that we do not need to implement express bus stops this year,” Webb announced.
     The Express Bus Stop plan would impact 3 magnet schools, including DSA, and would mean that students must find their own transportation to their designated DPS school site or facility, for bus service then to their school. Another major reason for delaying this was the large amount of concerned feedback the board received in a survey.
     “It’s absurd. The whole point of busing is that parents don't have to drive kids anywhere for them to get to school. This could drive underprivileged families away from magnets and make inequality worse,” a survey respondent voiced. 
     While Express Stops have been pushed further down the road, Family Responsibility Zones are still set to begin January 21st. This means that bus service will no longer be provided for a 1.5 mile radius around 21 elementary schools. There were also major  concerns about this measure, including dangerous walking conditions for kids. 
     “I love Durham, but we have to be realistic. Some of the areas we are talking about we don’t even want to drive down,” board member Wendell Tabb elaborated.
     With these short term fixes- reduction of magnet school routes, shifting the burden of school transportation to families who live close to school- DPS is shakily beginning to work on long term solutions, like increasing recruitment and improving working conditions for bus drivers. 
    “Long term, I think the magic wand would be that we are able to secure enough drivers to be able to run all the routes throughout this district, thus being able to make sure students are brought to school on time and arrive home in a timely manner,” Redfearn concluded.

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