How are students getting to school? Parents share struggles with Youngstown school bus process

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN)- For hundreds of students in Youngstown City Schools, school buses are extremely important for their education.

In June, the Youngstown School Board unanimously voted to eliminate the busing of all the high school students that it serves. This is because of a $2 million fine recently imposed on the Youngstown City Schools for failing to get students to school on time. There simply aren’t enough school bus drivers to pick up every child.

For some parents, this new rule has changed their current routine and their near future.

Gwendolyn Blakeman is a mother of two Ursuline High School students. She was frustrated last year when she said the bus would not show up on many school days.

“We would go down to the bus stop and not even know if the bus was coming. One time I called down there and they said, ‘Sorry, we’re short. If you want to come down and apply, you can get a job.'”

When the new ruling was made, Blakeman said she was really concerned for the safety and well-being of the students who have to go through this. She won’t let her kids use the WRTA bus station because she thinks it’s unsafe.

“I wouldn’t mind them riding the bus if they didn’t have to go to the bus station. There’s always a lot of people hanging around down there. Whether it’s 5 minutes or 30 minutes of them waiting for the next bus, I’m not comfortable with it,” she said.

Blakeman’s daily routine has changed greatly. She leaves with her two children, her niece, and another student in the mornings and drops them off at the high school. Blakeman and the students have to be ready to get to the school so that she can go to work. Blakeman said she has almost been late to work multiple times. After school is over, a relative of the other student picks them up and takes them home.

“It makes me nervous, because if I can’t get to my kids to school, then you know, that could affect their education,” Blakeman said.

This situation has impacted other areas of Blakeman’s life as well. She has been working with one of her daughters to help her get her driver’s license. Blakeman hopes to save up enough money to pay for a car for her daughter. She said this is a lot of responsibility for her daughter to take on.

“I know it’s the time when they start driving, but it’s very fearful to have to give my 17-year-old all that responsibility, you know, just so that I can get to work on time, and they can get to school on time. It’s scary,” she said.

Blakeman hopes that the situation could be made easier so that every school day is less stressful.

“This is greatly impactful on our day-to-day life, stress, money, and finances. It causes more stress than anything else and none of us need any of that.”

One family has had to do something different to make sure their daughter gets to school. Tonna Carter has a daughter who is a junior who goes to Chaney and Choffin Career & Technical Center. Carter was very surprised when she heard about school bus travel being eliminated.

“I figured in my head, maybe they’ll come to some certain type of agreement before the kids actually go to school, because I’m 43 years old and I’ve never seen transportation eliminated for Youngstown City Schools. So that was my first reaction. I thought it was unreal,” Carter said.

Carter said that this change has made her family maneuver their schedules so that each of her three kids can make it to school.

Carter said that on September 5, her daughter had to use an Uber to get to school. Carter said that she is not ready for her daughter to take the WRTA bus.

“I mean, I don’t have anything against the WRTA, but that’s something that I’m not familiar with. That’s something she’s not familiar with. It’s just a lot going on in the world today. I don’t really want her trying to get on a WRTA. I don’t think she’s ready for that,” Carter said.

Carter elaborated more on her daughter’s situation, saying that she’s still a child.

“I just feel like my daughter is still a child. I feel like this is just too much for her. She’s a junior, you know. I feel like this is too much,” Carter said.

One local parent had issues with her new job because of this decision. Megan Skaleris was let go from her job at Rite-Aid and got a new job as a shift manager at Walgreens.

There was one problem: Her schedule at work needed to be changed because she needed to have time to take her Chaney High School student to Choffin.

Skaleris said that she was lucky that her boss was accommodating to her.

“Not all employers are going to do that. Not all employers are going to work with you through something like this,” Skaleris said.

Skaleris said that her son can’t walk to a bus stop because they live on a four-lane highway without sidewalks. She said that it is too dangerous.

“He can miss school if it ever came to that because I’m not. His safety is more important than a failing district’s education,” Skaleris said.

She said that she feels hurt because she doesn’t want her own work schedule to hinder her son’s opportunities.

“I can’t tell my son: No, don’t play sports because I need to do this. Don’t go get a career education to be able to start a career sooner,” she said.

Skaleris said that she is trying to make it work, but her situation continues to be difficult.

“I’m trying my best to make this work, but I shouldn’t feel as a parent this defeated sending my kid to school,” Skaleris said.

Students at Youngstown City Schools began classes on September 4 and the YCSD Chief of Staff Robert Kearns described the transition for students as positive.

Kearns credited the WRTA and their staff for attending open house events in late August to show students and families how to use the new app.

“I think because of that pre-planning really, all of our students did extremely well with it,” Kearns said.

A representative with Youngstown City Schools said that just over 1,500 high school students attend their traditional schools (East, Chaney, and Youngstown Rayen Early College).

Kearns said he is a father himself, and he understands why district parents are concerned about student safety. On the morning before the first day of school, Kearns and the Superintendent of Youngstown City Schools Jeremy Batchelor went to the Federal Station bus stop. Kears estimated that less than 30 students used the WRTA busses on the first day of school. Kearns shared more about what they saw.

“I think we all saw a very clean say, a very clean, safe, and well-lit environment. The bus drivers from WRTA were excited to receive our kids and all of our kids reported a safe and healthy experience in getting to the last leg of their trip. I think there were just a lot of preconceived notions about what public transportation would be like, and then there was the experience that it was actually a good experience. I think a lot of our kids really enjoyed that,” Kearns said.

Kearns said that the majority of their students get dropped off by car. The parents who were interviewed for this story said that one of their most daunting struggles is dropping off before school in the morning. They said that traffic is lined up around the buildings. Kearns said this could be because of scheduling conflicts between schools and the fact that many of the schools in Youngstown start at the same time.

Kearns said the school district is continuing to work with student resource officers and the Youngstown Police Department to help simplify the drop-off situation.

Kearns said the school has seen no significant change in attendance. Attendance records from the school district show that approximately 79% of high school students from East and Chaney attended school on the first day, while approximately 97% of YREC students attended school on the first day.

Kearns said the district really had no other options that were discussed because of the bus driver shortage in the area. Kearns said the district has approximately 51 bus drivers and that approximately 15 more drivers need to be trained and hired before the district can even go to the school board to discuss reopening high school bus routes.

“If we added 10 to 15 more from what we had right now, we could start adding services back,” Kearns said.

Kearns said the bus driver shortage is a nationwide issue that needs to improve. The district said that this bus driver shortage is also prominent in other areas throughout the state of Ohio like Akron, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton.

Kearns said the goals that YCSD has are to hire enough bus drivers and not cancel any WRTA bus routes during the school year. Kearns said the plan for bussing will be reevaluated at the end of the year, and the district can then determine whether or not school bus transportation can be brought back.

“School is beyond important, and we’ve got to get our kids to school in order for our kids to have successful lives. We’re going all have to work. We’re going to all have to work together to find out ways to do that, because you can’t just grab anyone off the street and ask them to drive a bus.”

To schedule a bus pickup from the WRTA with the My Ride K-12 App , log in using a scholar’s ID, which can be found on final forms, older report cards, or Progress Book. A video tutorial on how to use the app can be found here . To find out more information about bus driver training, Youngstown City School District.

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