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New Bus Routes Get Homeless to School

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 November 2005, 03:02 CST

By NIRVI SHAH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Until two weeks ago, this bus stop never existed: It didn't need to.

Here, outside Gate 10 at the South Florida Fairgrounds, the school bus collects 29 kids - kindergartners to high school students - who have been left homeless by Hurricane Wilma. They attend school from Royal Palm Beach to Delray Beach to West Palm Beach.

At another bus stop in Belle Glade, there are 11 kids, with at least one student from every school from South Bay to Canal Point.

Fifteen buses gather these youngsters every day to take them to the one thing still unchanged in their lives: their schools.

"It's a very good thing," said Daphne Everett, whose sons John Jr., Devon and Desmond attend Delray Boynton Academy and Atlantic High. "Everybody gets up at 5:30 to get the kids together. They're getting to school an hour, an hour and a half early, but I told them hang in there. Everything will be back to normal."

At Village Academy in Delray Beach, about 30 of Principal Tammy Ferguson's students were left homeless by Wilma.

Some are at shelters, others have moved away, and most are staying with relatives or friends. Many lived at Carver Estates, a public housing complex already in disrepair that was destroyed by Wilma.

"If we know they were affected by the hurricane, I let my entire administrative team know," Ferguson said. "If a kid is acting out, we know there may be issues: He may not have gotten to sleep in the same place he did the night before."

For some of the children, it means arriving at school an hour before the start of class. It means getting up earlier and riding the bus longer.

When they come "home," it's tough to find a quiet place to do homework. There are no computers or school supplies.

While some students have spent time writing or talking about the hurricanes, Ferguson said, at Village, on the day kids came back to school, "we made it a normal day. They needed to feel like everything was OK at school. They needed it just to be their rock."

Other youngsters, some the district doesn't know about, have not made it to school yet because they don't know the district is obligated to give them a ride if they've been displaced, or that they can enroll in the nearest school, even if they didn't attend there before the storm.

"If they're homeless, they can stay at their home school even for the rest of the year," said Bernard Shulman, the district's community liaison. "The whole idea is continuity. Every time they change schools, especially in the middle of the year, it's an educational disruption."

The district deals with homeless students year-round, not just after hurricanes.

At the moment, 294 students are classified as homeless, and last school year, officials worked with 1,500 homeless students, said Anax Pompilus, the district's facilitator for homeless students.

He approaches families living in their cars in parks and school- age children hanging out at malls during the day to see if he can help them.

For Sherron Gray's stepchildren, the hurricane made it easier to get into school at all. Now homeless, they don't need to provide birth certificates, immunization records or past report cards.

Alex, Aubrey and Devin were born in different places, and getting all of their records would cost money the family doesn't have. But ever since Wilma, all three were quickly accommodated at Cholee Lake Elementary in Greenacres.

First-grader Aubrey likes physical education and recess, both of which take her outside.

On a recent afternoon, she was doing homework: figuring out how many kids have dogs, cats and rabbits, according to a table on a worksheet.

Her desk was a cot in the cavernous fairgrounds building in which she has been staying, where blue painter's tape marks off each family's space.

"This is how old I am," Aubrey said, pointing to a workbook in which she's learning to fill in the dotted lines that spell the word "seven."

An American Red Cross volunteer was helping older brother Alex work on his homework: dividing fractions.

The school district is unsure how much longer it will bus students from the shelters.

The one at the fairgrounds grew by 80 people, including children, this week. So it's likely kids can count on rides to school from the shelters for as long as they are open.

Jefferee Jones' three teenagers - Reggie, Regina and Jarree - go to Palm Beach Lakes High from the fairgrounds every day. It keeps them from being bored, she said, but they're not exactly excited, either.

"No one wants to go to school and say, 'I'm living in a shelter,' " Jones said. "I don't want to be here at Christmas."

nirvi_shah@pbpost.com

Help for homeless students

Students who were displaced by Hurricane Wilma and cannot get transportation to their schools because they have moved or need other help can call Community Liaison Bernard Shulman at (561) 434- 8747.

The school district needs help in raising money to buy items for homeless students and seeks donations of these items. To help, call Ann Faraone at (561) 982-0935.

Source: Palm Beach Post

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