Bus stop too far for center elementary school

[Anonymous]

Hello!
We just received the bus stop for my kid's school (3d grader starting AAP at a center school). It is 8 minutes away and there are parts with no walkways. They also have to cross roads that don't have cross paths. I am worried about my kid and even for me. Do you know if it's possible to change the stop? Have you ever done that? If so, how? Thanks a bunch!

[Anonymous]

8 minutes by what - foot? My son's bus stop for the Center is 0.5 miles away.

We are walkers to our base school which is 0.8 miles away for comparison.

Whether or not you can change the stop is another thing. You should find out who else in your neighborhood gets a bus to the center, and if you prefer their stop location to yours - you probably can likely switch to theirs.

[Anonymous]

Drive

[Anonymous]

That’s normal. Ours is 1/3 of a mile away. It’s the only stop in our neighborhood. A dozen kids use that stop. We are the furthest away.

[Anonymous]

As it should be, it is not the school system's priority to serve your needs if your family has decided to leave your base school.

[Anonymous]

Is the bus stop different from the one listed on your acceptance notification?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As it should be, it is not the school system's priority to serve your needs if your family has decided to leave your base school.

Incorrect. You are wrong.

The school system is serving OP's needs, as they should be.

[Anonymous]

They really need to stop bussing for AAP students. It would solve all of the bus driver shortages and fix the weird school start and end times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They really need to stop bussing for AAP students. It would solve all of the bus driver shortages and fix the weird school start and end times.

If they did what you suggest, it would greatly decrease diversity since mostly white and Asian kids of SAHP or WFH parents could be driven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They really need to stop bussing for AAP students. It would solve all of the bus driver shortages and fix the weird school start and end times.

No it wouldn't. Those kids would still need busing to their base school and there are so many elementary schools that the split schedule is still required.

[Anonymous]

They need to make AAP a true gifted program. Not just a slightly accelerated program for somewhat intelligent children with status-driven parents who want to segregate their kid from the “other” at the expense of the taxpayer.

And they need to create a class for the less intelligent students so that the average/somewhat intelligent students can progress on pace. I volunteer extensively at my child’s school and the difference between the AAP classes and the general population classes is incredible. I understand why parents of average children jump through the hoops to get their kids into AAP.

There should be “basic” classes for kids who are consistently unable to keep up (probably 10 percent of a grade), “general” classes for the kids who would thrive in general education if not for having the “basic” kids in the class (85+ percent of the grade), and “gifted” (less than five percent—probably closer to 2 or 3 percent). Send the gifted kids to a regional center school. The parents whose kids truly need this type of education will move mountains to get their kids there (including walking 8 minutes to a bus stop).

[Anonymous]

^. It will never happen. Pretty much every parent of a kid in AAP thinks that their kid is in the top 2% and absolutely needs AAP. Kicking out the majority of the kids in the program will lead to a parental shit storm that FCPS doesn't want to touch.

Basic classes will end up with demographics that would be unacceptable to FCPS. When equity is the buzzword of the day, FCPS is not going to create remedial classes filled with URMs, low income kids, and kids with SNs.

[Anonymous]

They need to stop gifted centers altogether and keep all kids in their home school. They should be able to do advanced classes at their home schools.
That’s not what OP is asking though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to stop gifted centers altogether and keep all kids in their home school. They should be able to do advanced classes at their home schools.
That’s not what OP is asking though.

When I was a kid, our GT program involved busing kids to a central elementary school (as they changed the program, the ES changed, but there was busing each year except for the year it was at our school). Why should each school create a program for 5-20 students per grade when a center school can properly provide a cohort of 2-3 classes per grade?

[Anonymous]

An 8 minute walk? No, you aren't getting that changed. Plenty of kids walk more than 8 minutes to their home school.