In other news…the school buses!

Just finished an interview with the local news station Fox 4 News.  They have been raising hell with the school board over long bus rides.  Initially, Crystal and I figured we were maybe being unreasonable about the fact that Dominick has to get on the bus at 5:45am to get to the school at 7:30 and leave school at 2:00pm to arrive home at 3:45pm.  (3.5 hours total per day.)  But apparently not.

Amongst the other issues we’ve had with Cape Coral, the school bus rides seemed excessive.  However, property values have dropped by an average 37%, so the county, school, etc. have less money.  But it turns out a lot of parents are upset.  I wasn’t as upset with just that.  Fox starting pushing school board members and three of them said the equivalent of “What problem?  We didn’t know there was a problem!”  Upon pushing further, Fox came up with the idea that maybe the school board members should take a ride on the buses to see what it’s like.  School board members responded with everything from “that’s not allowed / illegal” to “I’m too busy.”  Are you kidding me?  Really?  Tell me you hired back 20 of the 120 drivers you laid off over the summer.  Tell me you postponed some elective construction projects to come up with the money.  Heck, tell me “hey, drop your kid off here and their ride will be cut in half”.  Tell me something…not “duhhhh, huh?” or “I’m too busy.”  The superintendent was quoted by Fox as saying last week “Well, if you live further than 2 miles, than the bus ride may be long.”  Kids aren’t eligible for school buses when they live within 2 miles of the school.   So really what he’s saying is “If your kid rides the bus, it could be a long ride.”  That’s deep, dude.

To be fair there are alternatives:

1.) We could drop off / pick up Dominick.  But….with the total number of parents who live within 2 miles or who choose to drop off/pickup their kids, it takes about 90 minutes.  We’re not wasting $150 a month and 3.5 hours (takes another 15 minutes to get home) just to save 15 minutes off his ride.

2.) We could enroll him in another school.  I checked every bus schedule that comes by here.  Every ride is between 1hr 15 min and 1hr 30 min.  I’m not changing Dominick’s school to save him 15 minutes.  There are charter schools that have shorter rides, but….their full.  There’s a waiting list.

3.) We could home school him.  Uhhh, no.  Neither Crystal nor I is qualified to give him a good education.

4.) We could move.  We have a lease through the end of the school year, but this is a very real possibility.  If we exercise this option, then our kids, our consumer spending, and our taxes go with us.  The school board might want to consider that!

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