RIDICULOUS!!!! Bus doesn't run, kids wait for 45 + minutes at 12 degree temp...

[Valarie]

My son goes to Karns High School. The bus comes at 7:45 give or takes a few minutes either way. This morning we go through our normal routine, I am on my way to work (I'm close to Lovell Road by now) it's about 7:55 my cell phone rings and my son says the bus hasn't ran. I said well its Wed and they have what they call "blast" Wed and high school doesn’t start til 9:00 am so maybe she was just running a few minutes behind. At 8:15 the phone rings again still no bus no mention of anything on the radio that it’s wrecked broke down...nothing. Mind you it is 12 degrees outside and the kids have been standing and waiting for the bus for over 30 minutes now. I called him at 8:40 to see if they bus had come and he said no. I told him to go back in the house and I would call the school to see if they knew anything, they didn't they gave me the school transportation department phone number. I called them and he put me hold came back said the contractor of the bus says it wouldn't start because of the weather, I said did they send another bus he said hang on again came back and told me no. I said what about our kids that have parents that work and aren't home to take them? He stated he wasn't sure but they would contact the school to let them know about the bus. It is now after nine and the kids aren’t at school and there is still no mention of this on the radio about bus not running. I call my son and let him know what they said so he takes some of the kids to our house to wait til parent could come get them and take them and it is now 9:30 a.m. and we are on the way to the school. What is so bad that 2 hours later, and other parents may not have known their kids waited outside for bus (that never showed) and nothing was every mentioned about it or the contractor couldn't send another bus to pick the kids up. Surely since elementary, middle and the rest of the high school buses have ran and school has started that they would have had another bus that could have ran!!

[Lisa Starbuck]

This is crazy. I thought the school system had purchased a phone dialer program to alert parents about this kind of thing? Have you had any followup from the school system's transportation dept.? If not, I'd get in touch with some of the other parents and show up at a school board meeting - be sure to sign up to speak!

[Valarie]

This just happened this morning... I'm just glad my son called me and the stop is close to he house so the kids could go in my house while I called the school and transportation dept to see what was going on. My son and the kids he brought in the house parents were all already at work and I was getting ready to leave work (down west in Franklin Square) and go get them all and take them when my son called me back saying on of the other parents that was closer was on the way. I just can't believe that with all the buses out there that they didn't have an extra to run. Elementary schools start at 7:45 and middle/high at 8:30...it was 9:30. And no the transportation dept hasn't called me back, I don't even know if they are going to have a bus pick them up now that we got them to school. Thanks Lisa for you support and response.

[Ginevra]

Valerie, I'd be interested in more attention to and clarification of school bus policies. This is something that affects children's health and safety.

I was very bothered by a time (now a decade ag0) when I went to a new day job, and a major thunderstorm broke out. My kids and all the rest of the neighborhood waited for their bus under a large tree, with lightning bolts crackling all over the place. I turned back and took them home. Some other students' parents already at jobs that had begun earlier in the morning. An automatic phone dialing system wouldn't have helped in that situation. And, anyone who got to school that morning (without having gone home and changed first) would have been soaking wet from exposure to weather.

We could get more organized than this, doing more to promote safe bus shelter locations (example: UT married students housing bus shelters at Sutherland Avenue), alternative routes, maybe using the regular KAT buses or permission to ride with other parents when the weather is outright dangerous like it was that morning during the thunderstorm.

Let's put our heads together and improve communication and options in cases like what happened with your child.

[Debi]

When Powell Middle School has buses not running on Friday, we got a call for each bus. I can't recall the exact times, something around 7:30 and 7:45. I thought it was excellent notification. Powell Middle seems to always deliver excellent communication, though, the staff at that school really does an excellent job in so many areas.

[heather]

Same thing happened to us last week. I leave for work at 7am to be at work by 7:30am and my son's high school bus does not get there until 7:45am. He normally has to leave the house by 7:30am because his bus is never on schedule and he can no longer gage the time. The driver either comes at 7:30-7:45 and no two days is ever the same on time. He stood out there in 9 degree weather and when my husband left at 8:15am to go to work he and three other folks were still standing at the bus stop. My husband ended up taking those kids to HVA and they tried to dock my son with a tardy until I filed a complaint with the Highschool. You wont get any closure with the Transportation Dept.

You will get we are short staffed due to the gas and budget crunch routes sometimes fall behind. My son gets out of school at 3:30pm and when school began he started first load and got home at 4:00pm now they dont get picked up until 3:50 due to the bus driver picking up Karns Middle First and my son and others standing up because the bus is full half the time he does not get home until 4:30pm when he goes to school 8 miles from my house. I have resorted to just picking him up after work because you cant have a gauge of when the bus is coming home and personally I dont think a student should have to wait a full hour after school is out to hit the front door.

Your going too see more of this as the budget gets tighter we have bus drivers who cram kids onto a bus and we its becoming more common.

[Ginevra]

I wanted to bring this thread back up to attention because I was recently in Kentucky, where conditions have been just terrible on account of the ice storm.

Many people have gone for days without power and water. The storm began on Tuesday morning with a coating of ice on sidewalks and trees, and then the trees began to fall... and the power went out.

How well-prepared are Knox County parents (and school administrators) for this kind of event? It happens here, too, from time to time. Here is a link to an emergency preparedness list:

http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/preparations-fo...

[Ginevra]

Additionally, I want to bring up for discussion the idea of preparedness for outbreaks of influenza etc. The "Pandemic" link above shows that some areas of Japan have just shut down their schools during the last few days because of influenza outbreaks.

Is our community prepared for situations where the schools might be shut down for a couple of weeks or longer on account of contagion? That is one of arguments for having a solid public homeschool framework available for parents and churches to tap into in case of emergency (during the Mississippi River floods in the Midwest several years ago, many high school students were unable to graduate on time; their classrooms had been ruined by flooding).

I am so grateful that I am not enduring the conditions in Kentucky right now. I wish I had evidence of planning here so that I could trust that Knox County is prepared for that kind of disaster! Who coordinates for emergency situations (for example a flu epidemic combined with an ice storm power outage like Kentucky is currently experiencing... that would be deadly for many) and during worst-case scenarios here, how would we go about coping?

[Lisa Starbuck]

Good point Ginevra. It makes sense that the schools should be the community's resource gathering place, a central (presumably, though not always!) location for emergencies. Do the schools have any type of emergency preparedness resources for the general public? I'm assuming there is some preparedness plan for taking care of the school's occupants if an emergency happens while school is in session.