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Alternative-School Students Scramble for Viable Transportation

Posted on: Saturday, 21 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Lauren Roth, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Jan. 21--VIRGINIA BEACH -- Five days a week, Cordell Jones, 17, has to get a ride to and from school. With no buses serving their school, all 333 students at Open Campus, a Beach alternative high school, face the same problem.

David Pace, the division's director of transportation, said surveys of students at the school in 1998, 2001 and 2002 didn't yield enough demand for buses. "The results say kids don't want to ride the big yellow cheese wagon and would only ride it as a last resort."

In the 2002 survey, 88 of 274 students, or 32 percent, in attendance on March 6 said they would regularly use buses .

Yet opinion seems to have changed since the school relocated in September to Witchduck Road , where it shares a site with two other alternative schools served by buses -- Virginia Beach Central Academy and the Center for Effective Learning. Open Campus operates morning, afternoon and evening programs for students who have difficulty in a traditional setting.

"If they allowed us to ride the CDC buses, we would all get here on time," said Cordell , a junior who lives in the Landstown area and attends morning classes. Central Academy is still known to many as the Career Development Center, its former name.

Cordell said he is late "the majority of the time" and frequently misses school because he can't get a ride. Open Campus has the second-lowest average attendance for a city high school, at 82.46 percent. Only Central Academy's is lower.

Open Campus teacher and student newspaper adviser Ana Redstone Trepeta said transportation has been a hot topic this year. The Owl Press has just completed a survey about transportation for next week's issue.

"Overwhelmingly, students said they would have better attendance and fewer tardies if they had transportation," she said.

Open Campus students follow a college like varying schedule of classes. Open Campus day classes start at 8:15 a.m. and let out at 3 p.m., 60 minutes after buses arrive for students at Central Academy and the Center for Effective Learning . Afternoon classes run from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and evening classes from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m . Pace, the director of transportation, said the school division already runs buses extensively each school day, from about 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Earlier this week, Open Campus student Steven Cyrus was left waiting outside at 2 p.m. as buses for the other schools pulled up.

"I live all the way by Landstown High School," the sophomore , 17, said. "It's hard to find a ride."

Dawn Allen, parent of an Open Campus student, made an appeal to the School Board for transportation at its meeting last week. Amanda Ash , chairwoman of the English department, made the same request in October.

Allen proposed students ride buses to Central Academy, arriving about 7:45 a.m., and take advantage of tutoring until Open Campus classes start 30 minutes later.

"For many of them, this is their last chance to get a high school diploma or GED," said Allen, who is also on Open Campus' 18-member School Planning Council. "If they don't have transportation, many will continue to miss class and eventually drop out."

Buses already are provided to students from around the city who attend the high school academies or magnet schools. Like the students at Central Academy and Center for Effective Learning, they may ride two buses or walk a mile and a half to their bus stop.

Allen's plea found at least one sympathetic ear on the board.

"I think we definitely need to make sure what we're providing to some, we provide to all," at-large board member Carolyn Weems said .

Reach Lauren Roth at (757) 222-5133 or lauren.roth@pilotonline.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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