BREAKING: Lacking bus drivers, CMS delays middle school opening
Grades 6-8 to return to school Jan. 5 instead of end of Thanksgiving week because of unanticipated driver shortage; Rhonda Cheek: ‘It pisses me off’
Good evening! Today is Tuesday, November 10, 2020, and we’re coming to you with HOT BREAKING NEWS.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle schoolers will have to wait six weeks longer than planned to see inside one of these. (Photo by Joshua Hoehne/Unsplash)
by Cristina Bolling
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools middle schoolers won’t head back to buildings for classes until January — some six weeks later than previously scheduled — because of insufficient bus driver staffing.
The CMS school board on Tuesday night voted 6-3 to extend the middle school start date to Jan. 5, the same day high schoolers are scheduled to return to classes. Middle schoolers were scheduled to return in three rotating groups starting Nov. 23.
District administrators said they believed they had enough bus drivers a couple of months ago, but that in the past few weeks, 122 drivers have taken federal leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or other governmental leaves, and others have had to quarantine or have called out sick.
CMS leaders portrayed the bus driver shortage as an inevitable and unforeseen consequence of Covid, as opposed to a situation they may have been able to anticipate. Several board members suggested CMS might not have explored all of its options.
The district has enough drivers to shuttle the nearly 40,000 elementary students who returned to classrooms last week, but because social distancing requirements limit middle schoolers to 24 students per bus, district officials say they lack drivers for 128 buses that would make 227 bus runs each day.
Adam Johnson, who heads CMS’s transportation department, said the district is trying to hire more drivers but that it takes eight weeks to get a driver trained and certified, which wouldn’t solve the problem in time to bring middle schoolers back as scheduled.
The delay infuriated many parents watching on Facebook Live.
“CMS should hire Uber drivers,” wrote one viewer in the comments.
Board members Rhonda Cheek, Sean Strain and Margaret Marshall were the no votes. Cheek and Strain said they were angry that students are being forced to stay home longer because of an operational issue — not a health and safety issue.
“I’m tempering my emotions so much right now. It’s pissing me off,” Cheek said. “I’m hearing about kids and their mental health being so challenged right now and so many things that are very scary. We’ve got to get this right. We can’t not get this right … You can’t come back to me in December and tell me you can’t get enough bus drivers to start on January 5th. We’re letting down our kids right now.”
“I understand and feel the frustration that exists,” said CMS Superintendent Earnest Winston. “We’re frustrated as well. We would not have liked to have come tonight with this recommendation, but this is an evolving situation and circumstances are changing daily, constantly. I don’t want it to go that we’re letting our kids down. … This is nothing that we’re doing intentionally, but it’s a matter of circumstances.”
Currently, many elementary school buses are rolling at low capacity, but Johnson said it won’t be until next week before the district assesses how to make the routes more efficient, because this is week two of elementary students’ return to classrooms.
Several board members praised Johnson and the district’s transportation department. Board chairwoman Elyse Dashew thanked CMS staff for the “thankless thousands of hours of work that you put in.” Board member Carol Sawyer said she appreciated “all the work that staff is doing to sort this out.” Winston said he appreciated the “incredible hard work of our transportation team.”
Plea to parents — take a survey and drive if you can: Administrators said Tuesday that they’ll be circulating a survey of families from Nov. 16 to Nov. 30 to assess which students need bus service and which will be car riders.
Using that data, they’re hoping to be able to plan routes to maximize buses.
Meanwhile, they said families who have the ability to drive their students to school should do so, to free up bus space for families who need it.
“If you think you can take your child to school, we need you to do that this year. It is not environmentally friendly, it is not traffic friendly, but it’s the way we’re going to make this happen,” Marshall said.
December exams unaffected: Middle and high school students in certain courses are required to take mid-term exams in December inside school buildings and not online — even if they are enrolled in the district’s full remote plan. Johnson said the district has busing capacity to bring those students to school on exam days. Not all students will take those exams.
Will it be better in January? One of the leaves that drivers are taking, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, is set to expire Dec. 30, but it’s possible that that leave will be extended and still be an obstacle in January.
Johnson said the district is trying to recruit from job fairs and has reached out to the Latin American Coalition and local churches to find new drivers.
Middle schoolers in K-8 schools will return: Tuesday night did bring good news for one group of middle schoolers — students in grades 6-8 who attend K-8 schools will return to buildings on Nov. 30, in the two-day-a-week schedule elementary school students currently follow.
That affects some 1,448 students — a small percentage compared to the tens of thousands of middle schoolers across the district.
Also on Tuesday…
State reduces limit on in-home gatherings to 10
Shoot, there’s no room for the in-laws at Thanksgiving this year. State law won’t allow it.
North Carolina is reducing the number of people allowed to gather inside homes to 10, down from the 25 that has been permitted since early September.
Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference that state officials are concerned about the spread of Covid during the holidays, as families and friends gather together indoors during colder weather. The statistical measures the state examines on the spread of Covid have been heading the wrong way lately, state officials have said.
The new limit seems to apply mostly to gatherings in private residences.
An FAQ posted on the state’s website on Tuesday said the lower limit does not apply to religious ceremonies, wedding and funeral ceremonies, “gatherings for work” or for receiving government services, gyms, restaurants, personal care businesses, museums and aquariums, movie theaters, hotels, conference centers and reception venues. Those facilities have different capacity limits that are unaffected by Tuesday’s executive order.
The lower mass gathering limit was the only change to the state’s Covid rules.
The new order takes effect Friday at 5 p.m. and lasts until Dec. 4. —TM
In addition…
We shared some additional news on Tuesday on our website and social media channels:
New development plans in Dilworth — Alpine Ski Center building sells, with plans for retail and a rooftop restaurant/bar; rendering of proposed office building on site of Dilworth Starbucks.
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