Concluding that the school district is "not a service for parents to drive their children around the community" – the words of Crookston School Board member Deb Kiel – the board's Policy Committee on Tuesday recommended full board approval of a more stringent transportation policy when it comes to parents frequently changing the locations their kids are to be dropped off.
"We are not a customized child delivery service," is how board member Bob Altringer put it.
Apparently, parents contacting the schools on a semi-regular basis, with little advance notice, to alert staff of a different location for their kids to be dropped off by the bus, has become quite a problem in recent years. Washington School Principal Denice Oliver said last year alone, parents contacted the school about 2,000 times with transportation changes involving their kids. While almost constantly changing arrangements might be stressful for staff, bus drivers and Transportation Director Rick Niemela, Oliver said the children are well aware of the lack of stability as well.
"We have little children concerned all day about where they're going," she said at Tuesday's meeting. "It consumes their whole day, and you wonder how much something stressful like that affects their learning."
It's not stressed-out kids that drove the committee to recommend the change, however; it's the fear that kids are going to get lost in the ever-changing shuffle and end up in the wrong place, alone and forgotten about.
"We have a very difficult time knowing where children are, if they're getting to where they're supposed to be," Superintendent Wayne Gilman said. "Bus drivers aren't able to bring them to the same destination on a consistent basis."
He said he checked with district officials in East Grand Forks and Thief River Falls, where similar transportation policies result in the same headaches. "There are all these calls, emails, revised calendars and messages, and kids end up going all over the place," Gilman said. But in Bemidji and Pequot Lakes, one pick-up and one drop-off point is allowed, and the uncertainty and concern simply don't exist.
The committee recommended changes that will no longer allow for an "infinite number" of changes to a child's transportation plan and, instead, will require a parent or guardian to provide at least 10 days' notice if a pick-up or drop-off point is to be changed. Niemela will have the ability to authorize emergency changes.
He said the changes are long overdue.
"I'll get three or four requests for changes in a week for one kid, with parents bringing me a weekly calendar showing where their child needs to go. I give that to the bus drivers, but that's a lot for them to stay on top of," Niemela said. "I'll get emails from parents early in the afternoon, but I'm not sitting at my computer waiting for them. The younger the children are, the better chance we have of losing them."
The policy changes will be detailed in the Washington and Highland school handbooks, and parents will have an opportunity to learn the specifics at Welcome Back to School Day at Crookston High School on Aug. 12. The changes will kick in when the school year starts, assuming the full board approves them on Aug. 9.
"I'm sure there will be a transition period for the parents who have been doing this," Niemela said. "There will be some complaining."
