New year, same routes: Talawanda continues busing at state minimum

Oxford resident and mother Dana Hollingsworth watches the Talawanda Middle School bus drive past her house every day, but she can't put her 11-year-old on it.

At its May 16 meeting, the Talawanda School Board passed the one-tiered busing schedule for another year. The chosen system will continue to make busing unavailable to all high schoolers, as well as younger students who live within two miles of their respective schools.

The Hollingsworth family moved into their new home five months ago. During the house search, Hollingsworth said she took into consideration the busing situation to ensure she had transportation for her child.

Hollingsworth ended up living 1.9 miles from Talawanda Middle School.

"I just don't understand why there isn't more stops set up that's closer for the people that are right on the edge of that two mile mark," Hollingworth said. "You know, it's crazy to me."

Hollingsworth added that transportation to school isn't as big of an issue as getting him home. She said that he'd have to walk through Oxford and all the way down state route 732 if her sister hadn't stepped in to help.

"She has four kids of her own, so it's a horrible situation for all different families, all different walks of life, all different incomes," Hollingsworth said. "It just seems so unfair."

One-tiered busing continues

Holli Hansel, the director of communications for the Talawanda School District, said the transportation program in place for the past two years is the Ohio State minimum for transportation for public schools in Ohio.

"I think [the reaction to busing] depends on your individual situation in your family and family household," Hansel said. "Certainly there are critics to the current transportation program. However, there are families that this works well for them."

She added that some families enjoy taking their kids to school as part of their routine. Others have talked about the extra sleep their kids get in the morning and the added bonus of kids getting home at 3:30 p.m. and not 5 p.m. or later.

Scott Davie, the Talawanda High School principal, said the district has tried to adjust the start time for secondary students for years, and the change in busing made that adjustment accessible.

"It's one of those situations where what's really good for somebody else isn't necessarily good at all for another person," Davie said. "And we appreciate that there are a lot of different opinions about the current situation [that] we've seen at the high school level."

Hansel said the one-tiered busing system is identical to last year's schedule, making it easy to implement the same procedures.

One policy continuing this year is a sign-up sheet for K-8 families to fill out if they need busing. By having parents sign up, Hansel said the goal is to avoid making unnecessary stops and make sure students don't spend too long on the bus each day.

Even though the policy continued this year, Hansel said forms came in slowly because many families forgot they had to do it.

"That's really the only thing that I would report on that wasn't going great," Hansel said.

Davie said last year himself and others met with faith-based leaders in the community to establish the faith in action transportation team (FIAT) for emergency situations.

Last year, he said they utilized FIAT once a week to every two weeks and overall had the highest daily attendance rates in years.

Also, through the social worker, Madison Wetzel, they tried to find more long term solutions ranging from coordinating ride shares and using public transportation.

"Our heart really breaks for the families that are are impacted by this in such a dramatic way that it's impacting their their schedule, or, you know, potentially their finances or anything like that," Davie said. "But we also appreciate that there are some who, you know this is working for, and it's a system that they wanted, and they were glad to see it."

Hansel said the district doesn't have a partnership or is affiliated with the Fedora Shuttle Services, but they're aware of the business trying to put together a transportation program for students.

According to reporting by Fox19, Brian Urell, from Fedora Transportation, a shuttle service known for its college student clientele, is now expanding his service to cater to parents in the Talawanda School District. Fedora will provide 12-passenger vans to support up to ten students and 15-passenger vans to support up to 13 students. The cost will be about $20 per day per student, according to Fox19.

Hollingsworth, who drives her son to school every morning, said she's grateful that people in the community are working on solutions. However, it would cost $100 a week for her to purchase transportation for her son, and she said the burden is even greater for families with more kids.

Busing survey creates backlash

Rebecca Howard, president of Talawanda's Board of Education, said she wasn't in support of the one-tiered busing. Still, she left the decision of keeping it or returning to a two-tiered system where elementary students woke up earlier to the people since there was turmoil surrounding start times.

"I had talked with Ed already about possibly doing [a survey] because people were saying, 'You never listen to us, right? You know, you make these decisions, and you don't ask what it is that we want,'" Howard said. "So I had said to Ed, 'Can we do a survey about those two start times?"'

The results of the school's official survey showed that more than 59% of parents wanted to keep the current time. In the end, Howard ended up being the deciding vote for the one-tiered busing and she chose to listen to the communities' input.

"My votes are never about me," Howard said. "They're not even really about what I want. They're about what have I learned in the process of discussion, in data collection, in talking with or hearing from community members."

"People ask us to listen to them," Howard said, "and we listened to them."

After the board voted, former school board candidate Ivan Carver sent out a survey of his own regarding busing. He found that nearly 40% of students' transportation needs weren't met by the current system, according to results he presented at a school board meeting in June.

Howard said the board has faced some complaints that the district's survey was worded confusingly or that the board members made the wrong decision. However, she said she couldn't justify voting against the clear majority of her constituents.

In future years, Howard said she hopes two-tiered busing can come back, but only in a way that respects democracy and the concerns of the community.