Friday, August 22, 2003
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Friday, August 22, 2003 |
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Deadline Monday to apply for spot on bus task force By J. FRANK
LYNCH
Having heard your complaints, the Fayette County School Board now wants to hear your solutions. But step on it. A task force charged with finding answers to the most difficult issues surrounding cutbacks in school bus routes this year will be drawn together at lightning speed, it was announced at Monday's board meeting. Among the first challenges: How to restore transportation to all of the district's elementary school students, including neighborhoods that were completely cut off by the ".5 mile" rule. Then, according to school officials, the panel will turn its focus to next year, reviewing current administrative regulations on transportation to see what adjustments can be made for the future. The deadline for submitting a letter of interest to the school system is 4:30 p.m. Monday, said Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, public information specialist. Ten people representing a cross-section of the county will be chosen, joined by five school district staff yet to be named but likely including Superintendent John DeCotis and staff from the transportation department. Though DeCotis gave no time frame for the group's first meeting or a deadline for finding solutions, he suggested Monday night that his staff would continue to move as swiftly as possible to address every issue brought to their attention. The evidence supports that, at least in regard to the plight of one mother who addressed the board Monday night. Thessia Benson moved her two children, one elementary age and the other in middle school, from Riverdale to Fayetteville, even though it meant a longer commute to her job on the north side of Atlanta. "I wanted them to get a better education, and I wanted to know they would be safe" when she left early in the morning for work. But she said her hopes were shattered when she discovered through a simple search on the Internet that a convicted child molester, required by law to register his address, was living in the house at the very corner her children were told to wait for the bus. Moans, groans and jeers went up from 200-plus parents at Monday's meeting. On the platform, board members reacted with raised eyebrows, sideways glances or deeper frowns. But nobody spoke. Tuesday morning, less than 12 hours later, parents at that bus stop were handed a memo from transportation staff and told the morning's pickup would be the last. In the afternoon, the bus operator drove right past the home were the convicted sex offender allegedly lives, and instead dropped off her charges in the cul-de-sac of tthe street less than half a mile long. Parents were elated, though one who lives about midway down the street was still trying to convince the bus driver to stop as she passed her house, instead of making her three children walk to the far end. Knowing the bus driver, said the mother as she drove off in her minivan, common sense will eventually prevail.
How to applyLetters of application expressing interest and qualifications for appointment to the "Transportation Task Force" will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Fayette County School Board administrative offices, 210 Stonewall Avenue West, P.O.Box 879, Fayetteville. For more information, call the superintendent's office at 770-460-3535.
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