Anonymous wrote:Forget busses. Get up, smell the roses, and walk your kids to school. Then pick them up and walk back home. Yes, this is what we do every day. We love talking with our kids on the way home about what happened and we all benefit from the exercise. And our kids get directly to and from school without a dreary long school bus ride.

It's important to remember that Washington DC, at its widest, is only ten miles wide so all school commutes are shorter than that, usually MUCH shorter. Public transportation and walking are quite viable methods of transportation here.

I've no doubt this post will generate a chorus of replies stating why walking is impossible to do for reasons of parent's work or whatever. Well, we deal with the same issues. Guess what, it is possible. We simply choose not to manage our lives around a car, and it has made all the difference.

What an ass you are. People have kids in multiple schools at disparate locations. It is great that you walk your kids in. Not everyone can do this in a reasonable time frame. You see Virginia, not everyone in the world has the same privilege as you do. Because with the wealth of living in these close in neighborhoods comes enormous privilege. ENORMOUS PRIVILEGE.

They will send a 55 seat over the road passenger busses to pick up volleyball teams of 8 players and 1 coach. Then if you factor the players who leave with their parents immediately after the game, sometimes the bus will return with about 4 players and 1 coach.

Money wasted and poor over-sight.

Now get this, DCPS will send a bus to pick-up athletes and cheerleaders but if the pep band decides to go to the same event. The band/school will have to pay a private bus company to transport. That deserves a double YIKES!

Anonymous wrote:
I have personally witnessed the transport of athletes from Spingarn to Eastern in an over-the-road bus and the cost per trip is $300.00. Then multiply that by 5 teams over a 10 game schedule. Yes, that is a pretty penny wasted.

Holy hell. It would take you 15 minutes to WALK from Spingarn to Eastern. Money wasted indeed. Yikes.

1/13 (10:08) You're wrong. The buses are no longer in receivership. The operation is being monitored by the former receiver. The operation is run much better under DC than it ever was under Gilmore, the monitor. Unfortunately, he has an absolute fit any time DC wants to make large changes and he fights the city in court. He wants to make sure that he employs everyone he can on the city's dime. I think he acts like a slave master. He treats the employees poorly, but has convinced them that the city should never have control or all of the union staff would be fired. Which, quite frankly, a lot of them need to be!

I am with you I am a child of the 60's and I have 8 siblings. We were raised in the Trinidad community. We walked to Webb Elementary and by Junior High we branched off to Browne and Hamilton by walking. Then it was time for high schools and we walked to Dunbar, Spingarn and Eastern. We only had one spoiled sibling who ventured out and had to catch the bus to Woodson.

Anonymous wrote:Forget busses. Get up, smell the roses, and walk your kids to school. Then pick them up and walk back home. Yes, this is what we do every day. We love talking with our kids on the way home about what happened and we all benefit from the exercise. And our kids get directly to and from school without a dreary long school bus ride.

It's important to remember that Washington DC, at its widest, is only ten miles wide so all school commutes are shorter than that, usually MUCH shorter. Public transportation and walking are quite viable methods of transportation here.

I've no doubt this post will generate a chorus of replies stating why walking is impossible to do for reasons of parent's work or whatever. Well, we deal with the same issues. Guess what, it is possible. We simply choose not to manage our lives around a car, and it has made all the difference.

Google says it would take one hour and seven minutes to walk to my child's school. 40 minutes by public transit. 13 minutes by car. I think most people would choose option c.

Forget busses. Get up, smell the roses, and walk your kids to school. Then pick them up and walk back home. Yes, this is what we do every day. We love talking with our kids on the way home about what happened and we all benefit from the exercise. And our kids get directly to and from school without a dreary long school bus ride.

It's important to remember that Washington DC, at its widest, is only ten miles wide so all school commutes are shorter than that, usually MUCH shorter. Public transportation and walking are quite viable methods of transportation here.

I've no doubt this post will generate a chorus of replies stating why walking is impossible to do for reasons of parent's work or whatever. Well, we deal with the same issues. Guess what, it is possible. We simply choose not to manage our lives around a car, and it has made all the difference.

All that being said, it is an unionized group that holds serious political clout in this city.

Anonymous wrote:12:43, do you want an union uproar? This bus situtation is a political hotbed. It is not what the busses can do for our children, it is what the unionized adults won't do?

Again, DCPS will pay a private bus company to transport athletic teams but will not utilize their own fleet. Mind-boggling

DC government has no control over the busses. The special education children are under receivership as ordered by Judge Friedman. There is one man who basically tells the District how much money he needs to operate the bus system. DC has tried and failed repeatedly to gain control of the special education system and all it entails.

19:38,

I am with you all the way.

Let's discuss, there's about 10 high school football teams, therefore any given day of the game. There's only about 5 teams that would need to travel. The games are usually held on Friday nights and Saturday. So, when I hear that DCPS will retain a private bus company at 1 million dollars to transport athletes is outlandish. You mean that DCPS doesnt have at least 5 busses out of a fleet of 300 on a Friday/Saturday.

I have personally witnessed the transport of athletes from Spingarn to Eastern in an over-the-road bus and the cost per trip is $300.00. Then multiply that by 5 teams over a 10 game schedule. Yes, that is a pretty penny wasted.

If you want to lower the cost, talk to the "court monitor" of the buses. This is one instance where DC could in fact have a cheaper operation. Unfortunately, the court monitor is a bully and has convinced people that DC would fall apart if he were not there. That is hardly the case. Yes, there are 2 people on each bus, but that is not a legal requirement. That is what DC parents have become accustomed to. No other jurisdiction offers this grand service. In addition, DC transports kids with ADHD and with VERY minor LD issues. I can understand when a kid has a major difficulty, but the majority of kids do not.

In addition, DC provides door to door service. We are the only jurisdiction that does that.

Often times, DCPS cannot use the DC fleet because it may conflict with times and dates that children have to go to school. DC transports special ed kids to MD and VA and every school is on a different schedule. There are usually not enough buses to provide transportation for extracurricular activities.

The court determines the times that kids must get to school. So if you have a kid who lives in SE and goes to school in Potomac, MD, the bus has to go the entire way with only one kid because if you put 2 kids on the bus, it would not make the court mandated ride time.

Don't get me started!

12:43, do you want an union uproar? This bus situtation is a political hotbed. It is not what the busses can do for our children, it is what the unionized adults won't do?

Again, DCPS will pay a private bus company to transport athletic teams but will not utilize their own fleet. Mind-boggling