Amid a surge of complaints, Alexandria City Public Schools says it will respond to requests to reinstate bus routes by the end of the month.
The school system is under fire for its new walk zones associated with new school boundaries. In the city’s heavily Latino neighborhood of Arlandria, a number of parents complained to the Alexandria City School Board on Thursday night (Sept. 10) that the changes have left kids without school buses in unsafe areas.
One parent of four ACPS students living in Arlandria (also known as Chirilagua) said her kids attend different schools, and that it’s costing upward of $200 a month to pay for transportation.
“I’m here to express that I’m very concerned because for me and for other moms in Chirilagua,” the parent said. “Having no transportation is affecting us financially.”
ACPS provides bus transportation for students living more than a mile from their elementary schools and more than a mile and a half from Alexandria City High School. The school system may grant exceptions in areas with identified walking hazards.
School Board Member Kelly Carmichael Booz said that the school system fell short in determining bus eligibility.
“We’ve got a number of intersections that were clearly indicated as safe walks, but are not,” Booz said. “We did not get it right, but this team is working really hard to get things right and to address it.”
Booz said the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and W. Glebe Road near Mount Vernon Community School is not a safe intersection, and that a city project to make improvements there won’t be finished until next year.
Marcia Jackson, the ACPS chief of student services and equity, told the School Board that the school system needed to have school staffers at the table when creating the walk zones.
“We had operations staff, we had city staff, but we didn’t have educators who are developmentally aware of can a five-year-old walk to school?” Jackson said. “Can a 7-year-old? Can a 12-year-old?”
Jackson added, “It’s a very different thing when you think about the developmental stage of students, and so that is something we will definitely do different in the future when we are making determinations about who can walk, buses. We need to have folks who know students and their developmental levels.”
Last month, Acting ACPS Superintendent Grace Taylor told the board that the school system has more work to do on bus eligibility.
Anthony Peña was hired last month as the school system’s chief operations officer. He said that concerns on walk zones will be individually addressed with families.
“If you have submitted your request, we have it,” Peña said. “Give us time to respond by [Sept. 30].”
Peña told ALXnow that parents will get updates on their requests through a ParentSquare notification.
School Board Chair Chris Harris said that the board didn’t expect these transportation challenges at the beginning of the school year.
“I talk to the mayor occasionally,” Harris said. “I talk to City Council members, and everyone’s talked the same language in regard to how we’re going to resolve these issues regarding transportation, and what’s really enlightening is everyone knows and feels it’s going to be resolved.”
ALXnow has reached out to ACPS for a list of bus stops that have been eliminated.
