Wake looks at bus options, scenarios for moving individual schools to online classes
Wake County could temporarily switch some school bus routes to express service, with limited stops, if the number of bus drivers out because of COVID-19 worsens.
Thousands of students have had to arrange their own school transportation since last week due to the surge in COVID-19 cases reducing how many bus drivers are available. The Wake County school system is looking at different options to address the problem, including potentially switching to express bus routes in hard-hit areas, according to Lisa Luten, a district spokeswoman.
“We’re at the point of exploring all possible solutions,” Luten said in an interview.
Express bus routes have only a few central stops, as opposed to neighborhood routes with far more. Families travel to the stops from a wider area than they would to the stops on a typical neighborhood bus route.
Express busing is traditionally only used at magnet schools due to the long distances some students voluntarily travel.
Driver absences not increasing
More than 150 school bus drivers were absent on both Thursday and Friday. It caused more than 100 bus routes to be canceled Friday morning.
But Luten said Tuesday that the number of driver absences hasn’t increased this week, which makes route revision less necessary. Many drivers have offered to pick up additional shifts, which Luten said has alleviated the shortage in many regions.
Wake warned families Friday that they’re not sure when the disruptions in bus service will end. School officials said the absences caused by COVID-19 are complicating problems Wake is already facing from a nationwide school bus driver shortage.
The situation is so dire in Guilford County that school bus service has been suspended for high school students in Greensboro and High Point for at least two weeks. Those students can use public transit for free.
Public transportation could be an option for some Wake students, according to Luten.
Calls to go to remote instruction
On Tuesday, the school system sent an email to families encouraging them to go to one of the free county COVID-19 testing sites if they want to get results back faster.
With COVID cases at record numbers, some parents and teachers have gone on social media to urge schools to temporarily switch to remote instruction.
“Please ACT!” Sharon Walker, a Wake parent, tweeted Monday to the school system, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and the State Board of Education. “Time for schools to go virtual.
“Too many teachers and students are missing. Clear learning loss. In person learning is no longer safe, it’s a daily superspreader event and much worse for mental health than virtual school. HELP US!”
But that option is harder to do now because of a new state law that says individual schools or classes can only switch to remote instruction if COVID exposures lead to not having enough staff or too many students quarantined. It’s unclear from the law if an entire district could go virtual now due to COVID.
The law doesn’t define what would be insufficient school personnel. or too many students quarantined.
Threshold for moving schools to remote
Bus driver absences alone wouldn’t be enough to switch the entire district to remote instruction, according to Luten. Wake County is North Carolina’s largest school system, with 158,000 students and more than 190 schools.
But Wake is looking at options for moving individual schools. On Tuesday, the district emailed principals on the process for moving individual schools to remote instruction due to staffing shortages.
In the email, schools were told not to consider going to remote instruction unless 20% or more of their total staff are out. The 20% figure, according to the email, was based on feedback from Human Resources, area superintendents and principals.
“Principals who have 20% or more of their total staff (teachers and support staff) out and can no longer support in-person school operations should contact their Area Superintendent to discuss next steps,” according to the email.
Luten said some Wake schools have reached the 20% figure but are able to continue with in-person instruction.
One entire 8th-grade level at a middle school and six special-education classrooms have switched to remote instruction, according to Luten.
“It’s not that our schools aren’t struggling with staffing,” Luten said. “But none have had to resort to going all virtual.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Wake looks at bus options, scenarios for moving individual schools to online classes."
