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DONNA WINCHESTERTo accommodate more students and make transportation more efficient because of controlled choice, officials add routes and eliminate some stops.
The district's new controlled choice plan for student assignment precipitated changes in the transportation system.
More routes were added to accommodate 20,000 more children who became eligible to ride the bus. Some stops were eliminated. Distance between bus stops was changed to no less than a quarter mile, and the number of stops serving a neighborhood was reduced.
Students from more than one school - two elementary schools, for example - now sometimes ride the same bus.
As the 2004-05 school year began, the transportation department was making adjustments to ensure that all children who live more than 2 miles from school can ride the bus.
"What we really want to do is make a more efficient transportation system," said Tom Reichert, the district's transportation routing supervisor. "We're working on ways to improve communication with schools and with parents."
The district is working on ways to make bus transportation safer, Reichert said. Toward that end, the School Board last spring approved technology that uses student fingerprints to keep track of those riding buses. The $2-million Global Positioning System will identify children as they board and leave the bus to make sure they are getting on the right bus and getting off at the right stop. The system should be running by October, Reichert said.
Parents concerned about privacy issues can opt out of the system.
One transportation issue concerns moving students enrolled in countywide programs from one end of the county to the other. It is not unusual, for example, for children who live north of Ulmerton Road but attend magnet schools in south St. Petersburg to spend more than two hours on the bus.
Some high school students face long bus rides now that all high schools are included in one countywide attendance area. Students who live in Tarpon Springs but attend Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, for example, must catch the bus at 4:46 a.m. to get to school by 7 a.m.
Bus stops for children attending schools outside their attendance area can be farther than one-half mile from their homes.
As was the case before controlled choice, children who attend fundamental schools are not eligible for bus service. The exception to this rule is Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School in St. Petersburg, which is open only to children who live in Attendance Area A.
Bus stop information is available on an interactive Web site maintained by the transportation department: edulog.pinellas.k12.fl.us/edulog/webquery/. Parents can type in their address and view available stops as well as pickup and dropoff times.
The district maintains a help desk that handles questions about student transportation. Parents can call (727) 547-7174 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday to make inquiries or request changes in transportation arrangements.
Transportation by the numbers
Students eligible to ride the bus: about 63,700
Students who ride the bus: about 45,000
Buses running routes: 702
Earliest bus stop: 4:46 a.m., taking students from Tarpon Springs to Lakewood High in St. Petersburg
Number of miles covered: more than 75,000 each school day