Money Well Spent?

The beginning of school next week leads me to reminisce about my own experience attending Burke schools. I spent the bulk of my elementary years at Mountain View Elementary. I rode the bus.

People older than me like to talk about walking ten miles each way to school. My bus stop was right in front of my house. Even so, I missed the bus a lot. Maybe it was my passive aggressive way of protest – back in the ‘day,’ school buses were driven by teenagers and were “hell on wheels.” Lots of screaming, meanness and disorder on that bus. And if I missed the bus my mother had to drive me. (Doesn’t sound like I was a very nice kid.) ANYWAY, that is how I remember my experience riding the bus to Mountain View.

So now, due to “Cost Savings Initiatives,” the BCPS buses will not travel down roads less than one mile. That sounds alright – everyone could use a bit more exercise. Until you realize that some buses run earlier than 6:00 am (darkness), and that kids will most likely have to walk to the bus stop alone. And then there is the problem of students encountering strangers. Recent news reports in the Charlotte Observer about a bus stop being near the home of a sex offender bring to mind the vulnerability of a child standing in the dark a mile away from home.

This is the website to check if you are concerned about your child’s bus stop: http://sexoffender.ncdoj.gov/

This Cost Saving Initiative will save BCPS gas/diesel money. (I can’t readily find the amount of money saved – although I bet some of you readers can). It seems to me the BOE has recently accrued unjustified legal expenses - the amount of those expenses is not readily available either.

Priorities?