Published: August 27, 2008 07:03 pm      

School board hears parents’ complaints on long drive to catch THS bus

POCAHONTAS, Va. — New school district lines are creating a busing headache for parents living in the small Peel Chestnut Mountain community.

Some parents in the community who opted for their children to attend Tazewell High School as opposed to Graham High School following the closure of Pocahontas High School are now having to transport their children in private vehicles nine miles a day each morning to Abbs Valley Elementary School where the students are then placed on a school bus and transported to Tazewell High School.

“I clocked it twice from my house to the school in two different vehicles,” said a concerned parent who contacted the Daily Telegraph Wednesday morning, but requested to remain anonymous. “It’s nine miles. Right now it’s running me 36 miles a day. In a month’s time that runs into a lot of money no matter how high everything is. It’s not right.”

The problem is aggravated by the fact that parents were originally told that transportation would be provided to their children regardless of whether they attended Tazewell High School or Graham High School, according to David Woodard, the Northern District School Board member.

“None of this makes sense,” Woodard said. “Of course people stood up and told the School Board this stuff in March, and they didn’t listen. The whole thing is a complete disaster. They were promised transportation. They have been given a choice in schools, and that part is true. But there is absolutely nothing being done to accommodate these kids in transportation.”

Woodard, who voted against the closure of PHS, said he has left several messages with the school system’s transportation director, but said none of the calls have been returned.

“There are plenty of solutions,” Woodard said. “All they have to do is take a few minutes and open their ears and open their minds to find some solutions. I’ve called the School Board office to speak with the director of operations on this matter, and at this point in time, he hasn’t returned my calls.”

School Superintendent Dr. Brenda Lawson said Wednesday that she is working to see if a solution can be found for the Peel Chestnut Mountain community.

“I told him I would get back to him within a week,” Lawson said, adding she too had received calls from a concerned parent in the community. “I’m working with him to see if at all possible we could do it where it wouldn’t necessitate adding another bus or driver.”

Lawson said in talking with a concerned caller from the community it was her understanding based upon her conversation with the parent that the number of parents in the community having to drive their children to Abbs Valley Elementary to catch the bus was in the “single digits.”

“Like all of our schools, we have attendance areas,” Lawson said. “Pocahontas is the Graham attendance area. So the buses that run in there bring (students) to the Graham schools. But if you are at Abbs Valley, and looking at Abbs Valley school, to the right is the Tazewell area, and to the left is the Graham Schools.”

Woodard said the School Board must be willing to reconsider the bus lines.

“I don’t understand why the line — when you’ve got seven out of 10 kids going to Tazewell instead of Bluefield schools — why is the line all the way in Abbs Valley and not somewhere in Pocahontas?” Woodard said.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com