Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Schools

Wilcox downplays glitches of first day

The Pinellas schools superintendent asks for patience, especially when trying to contact the school bus hotline.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published August 4, 2005

	[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]
	Seventh-grader Yahair Cruz, 12, rests before classes begin at Oak Grove Middle School in Clearwater. Yahair said she got a bit hot outside waiting for the building to open. Photo gallery Pre-K opening day smooth

As superintendent of a huge school district - 113,000 students, 15,000 employees and more than 140 public schools - Clayton Wilcox stood back and assessed the big picture.

"We opened all across the county on time and with very little fanfare," he said Wednesday, summing up the first day of school in Pinellas.

His biggest concern - the district's newly revamped school bus system - made it through with "a number of" late buses, two minor accidents involving buses with no kids aboard, and relatively few parent complaints.

All in all a good day, Wilcox said.

More than 4,000 callers jammed the district's new school bus hotline in the 48 hours leading up to the start of school, many encountering busy signals and waits as long as an hour. But Wilcox called for patience.

"I know it's tough," he said. "We're going to work to minimize those wait times. Our people are going to work late tonight trying to make calls back ... I would simply say we're doing our best. Right now we've got some room for improvement, but we will get there."

To those with bus problems, Wilcox's word "tough" seemed apt.

The bus that was supposed to carry Sandra Rivera's 11-year-old daughter and about 15 other kids to Osceola Middle School never arrived Wednesday morning at their Largo bus stop.

A neighbor gave the girl a ride, but the ordeal set Rivera's mind racing. What if her daughter had gotten in a car with the wrong person? How could she trust the bus system again? What new arrangements would be necessary to get to work and get her daughter to school?

"This is the first day of school and there is no excuse for this," Rivera said. "The communication and coordination leave much to be desired."

She planned to wait with her daughter at the stop this morning and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, Idarmes Jimenez just wished for a bus stop to go to. Her daughter, 12-year-old Isaidys Perez, is a seventh-grade student at Meadownlawn Middle School in St. Petersburg. Isaidys took the bus to Meadowlawn last year from a stop near her family's home in the Lealman area.

This year, the district didn't assign her bus. Jimenez says the school won't help her, and the transportation department tells her Isaidys is not entitled to a bus because her home is less than 2 miles from the school. She has called the district's new hotline repeatedly, but "it's busy, busy, busy," she said.

Jimenez is taking three days off work this week to drive her daughter to school because the only route to Meadownlawn is busy 54th Avenue, with crossings at 34th Street and I-275. Some stretches have no sidewalks.

The actual distance from their home to the school is 2.36 miles, more than enough to qualify for a bus ride.

Asked about the situation Wednesday, Wilcox said it appears the girl should get a bus to school. His message to the family: keep trying the hotline.

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 01:04:11]