How Are the Wheels on the Bus Going for Your Child?
From a reader named Maureen:
How is transportation going for everyone? Are late start times for K-5s as much of a problem as people thought they would be? Have there been unpleasant (or pleasant) surprises WRT transportation because of the NSAP?
How is transportation going for everyone? Are late start times for K-5s as much of a problem as people thought they would be? Have there been unpleasant (or pleasant) surprises WRT transportation because of the NSAP?
Comments
I'm not sure how they are paying for the cards (I was shocked to hear last year that SPS got no bulk discount for monthly Metro passes.) My 7th grader's card says it expires when she graduates from HS (though I expect they can cancel it if she fails to re-enroll.).
I don't think they can justify basing address info on where you get on and off the bus. Kids are allowed to be bused from day care addresses or be dropped off at sports/clubs that are not near their home address. Most of the kids who qualify for a guaranteed seat at GHS won't qualify for free Metro passes anyway (have to live more than 2.5 miles awawy.)
Yes, such features exist on many "smart phones" these days, but only if you actively turn them on. This is essentially being forced on the kids if they want to get to school.
If ORCA cards are indeed the only way HS kids get transportation now, the individual cards should be anonymous. Otherwise the consequences really are Orwellian.
I guess it could burrow up out of the ground, but I'm hoping no.
As usual, it shows up around ten minutes late this week. I expect in a couple of weeks it'll be pretty much on time.
As for the ORCA cards, I'm not really worried about that tracking aspect. What I WOULD like to see is the ability to use it on Link Light Rail, which apparently it can't be right now -- I also understand that lots of kids DO use it that way and nobody questions it, but it'd be good to have it formalized. This will grow more and more important as the rail line expands northward.
We are 2.4 miles from our high school, and I have to say I think the 2.5 mile marker is too far. It is a LONG way to walk twice a day. Maybe I am just a couch potato/couch potato enabler? I don't think so; school starts early and afternoons are needed more for homework than walking. Plus several days a week there are evening practices at school, making a return trip necessary. Metro makes sense for my son, but due to that 0.1 mile we have to pay for the trips or the bus pass.
1) Special Education. There are some students who cannot reliably use METRO
2) Clusters of students travelling from areas that would take over an hour to reach the school by METRO. I don't know the exact formula or the breakpoints, but given enough students and a long enough bus ride, the District will provide a yellow bus.
As far as I know, the ORCA card issued to students can be used on the light rail. I know that my daughter has used her District-issued ORCA card to ride the train. She takes the light rail downtown to catch a bus to West Seattle and Sealth.
For Lisa's high school student, I suggest a bicycle.
As for the variety in start times - I mean BUS times - there does seem to be more diversity than what we were told when the whole thing was initially presented. I don't know if this is a result of the disconnect between schools and the headquarters or the usual lack of information used when the headquarters makes a proclamation. They proclaim, and then they learn that they are wrong about a basket full of tiny details so they quietly alter their proclamation to the point that it just isn't true anymore. Plenty of examples out there.
They proclaim that everyone must use the Board-adopted materials, then they learn that the Board-adopted materials need to be supplemented and they learn that the rules are unenforcable and they learn that they can't enforce fidelity of implementation, and they learn five other things that punch holes in their mandate. Then they wonder how anyone got the idea that they had proclaimed anything in the first place.
Too funny! I supposed better that than falling on you out of the sky ;-)
Helen Schinske
There was some talk about perhaps giving the kids living in north Ballard a yellow bus to Ingraham - does anyone know if that actually happened?
When they do bike, sometimes they are locking their bikes to each other's bike or whatever they can find.
I biked everywhere as a kid (but don't recall locking it every).
Because 2 miles is still a bit of slog on hills sometimes.
Because it is still dark in the morning to get to the building in time to be ready for school
because lots of teen drivers are also converging on the same place. in the dark.
because the brand new RHS installed a whole beautiful row of bike racks wrong so they cannot be used properly.
because the school was so crowded you don't have a locker to put your wet outerwear. and unlike an adult in an office who can hang wet clothing in the cubicle or somewhere to dry, nothing is going to dry inside the tiny school lockers anyway.
That said, I do know some kids who biked regularly, put up with the extra work and early morning teen driver danger. But it takes good rain-gear, a solid bike with fenders and good waterproof way to transport all your books and other paraphernalia.
Can't help with the hills...or teen drivers (the latter not such an issue at middle schools, though)!