Manatee Busing Complaints May Lead To School Realignment

Complaints from the families of local students who travel more than an hour by bus to get to school each day have prompted the Manatee County School Board to examine a possible realignment.

There are 143 students who reside near and elementary schools but are bused to , and elementaries in East Manatee because of a voluntary desegregation plan. Some of those students spend up to an hour or more traveling to school each way, forcing them to miss out on after-school activities and tutoring.

School administrator Danny Lundeen has also cited an increased number of calls from parents concerned about that distance if their children are sick and need to be picked up.

The School Board at its Nov. 29 workshop heard presentations from three committees tasked with coming up with a realignment plan. The suggestions ranged from eliminating the "pockets" near Daughtrey and Oneco altogether to simply giving the families living within those pockets the option of attending a school closer to home.

McNeal Elementary Assistant Principal Katherine Price said the district must weigh the goals of desegregation and diversity with the individual needs of the 10 students at her school who face the long bus commute. She said those students, who are scattered among five grade levels, aren't able to make connections with their peers and are penalized by not being able to participate in after-school activities.

"They can see a school right across the street from them, but they spend two hours a day on a bus," Price said. "I can feel their pain."

School Board member Barbara Harvey also voiced concern about breaking down the intent of integration but said she would be in favor of giving the families in question the option of sending their children wherever they chose on a one-year test run.

But one roadblock for potential realignment is the population at Daughtrey Elementary, the most likely choice for many of the students currently being bused. Such a change could send Daughtrey's enrollment, currently at 762 students, soaring to close to 900, an influx that Lundeen said might force the school to add portable classrooms or eliminate some voluntary pre-K, Head Start and other programs to make room.

School board member Julie Aranibar said allowing the students to stay closer to home would also decrease the population at Braden River Elementary, in turn causing the school to lose staff.

Superintendent Tim McGonegal will present a recommendation to the board on Dec. 13 regarding a possible realignment based on those presentations. McGonegal said regardless of the disagreements among board members, everyone acknowledges an hour bus ride is too long for the students involved.

"I grew up three blocks from my elementary school and I could see my middle school," McGonegal said. "If you told me I had to be bused, I would have been more disruptive than I already was."