A DIFFERENT ROUTINE: DeKalb schools switch to bus hubs

It was still dark at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday when 11-year-old Isaiah hopped out of the family SUV and hustled toward several buses clustered together at Oak View Elementary, a DeKalb County school several miles south of Decatur.

It was the first day back to class from winter break. It was the first time Isaiah caught the bus at Oak View. And it was the first day of school busing cutbacks in DeKalb —- a midyear change to save money for the budget-strapped system.

“It seems to be going OK,” said Isaiah’s mother, Vernice Robinson, as she walked behind him to make sure he got on the right bus.

DeKalb County officials reported no major problems as several thousand students began a new routine, gathering at a system of transportation hubs set up at a few local schools. The change, which ended decades of virtual door-to-door busing in DeKalb, is among several cost-cutting measures expected in DeKalb schools this year.

For Isaiah, a fifth-grader at DeKalb’s Kittredge Magnet School for High Achievers, the change meant adjusting to a new morning schedule. Get up and out the door to catch the bus at Oak View before 6 a.m., then take that bus to a transfer point and catch another bus to school, which is more than 20 miles to the north near Chamblee.

He’ll repeat that process in reverse in the afternoon.

“His big thing is just having familiar surroundings,” Robinson said. Her son’s old bus picked him up by his neighborhood about the same time and, on Tuesday, his friends were already on the new bus —- Robinson said both those points of familiarity gave Isaiah comfort. “We’re just happy they didn’t take the busing away altogether.”

The cutbacks affect students who attend schools outside their neighborhood —- about 5,600 of the system’s 99,600 students, including those in magnet schools, charter schools and academic theme schools, as well as transfers from lower-performing campuses.

Parents had predicted chaos when the busing changes were approved in November —- part of a series of budget cuts meant to save DeKalb more than $20 million amid the sour economy and state funding cuts.

But on Tuesday, it was not chaos that greeted the dawn so much as periodic confusion, much as officials had predicted when they said they expected it to be like the first day of school.

They had designated several campuses as transportation hubs under the new set-up. Parents drop off children at these campuses and must pick them up after school. School officials said it caused no major glitches to the regular school day.

Which is not to say it was perfect.

“They gave out a shuttle number but they didn’t tell us where to meet,” griped Peggy Jackson, a parent who dropped off two kids at Cedar Grove Middle School —- which, like Oak View, is a hub.

Officials stationed at Cedar Grove had the buses waiting in the back, at the school’s usual bus drop-off/pick-up area. But most parents were driving to the front of the building, unaware.

“Excuse me, where’s the shuttle?” asked one woman of Jackson, who was standing near her car in her slippers but was the only person who knew where to go. No officials were in the front and there were no signs to direct traffic.

Still, most tried to put on a good face. At Oak View, bus driver Joyce Dorsey greeted everybody with a cheerful “good morning” as she directed them where to go. She also had the buses wait at least 10 minutes longer to give parents extra time to drop kids off.

“It’s the first day,” Dorsey explained.

Then, another student approached. “Come on, baby,” Dorsey said to the girl, “let’s get you to the right place.”