LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Some families of Jefferson County Public School students said students are still arriving as much as an hour late to school.
Trina white sews in her free time, usually after she gets her two granddaughters to school. But most days her granddaughters are taking the bus.
“As soon as we can get a second car, I will drive them every day just to get them to school on time,” said White.
The girls go to Jeffersontown High School and on days they ride the bus, their grandmother said they usually to miss a chunk of their first class.
“So every single day their bus stop is at 8:11 and he usually picks them up between 8:15 and 8:30 and they have another 40 minutes on the bus. And so they get to school between 9:15 and 9:30, almost an hour late every single day,” she said.
Missing instructional time adds additional stress to an already stressful time of their lives.
Spectrum News 1 checked with JCPS about White’s claims of the bus arriving an hour late every day.
A spokesperson from the district responded by providing GPS data from the last week that shows the bus arriving at Jeffersontown High School between 8:39 a.m. and 8:48 a.m. School starts at 8:40 a.m.
Pollio’s presentation at the last school board meeting showed that 8% of bus riders are late every day, missing an average of 13.5 minutes of instructional time. White said she wants to see Pollio get more involved.
“He needs to spend a week, two weeks riding busses with these drivers so he can see what they’re up against,” she said.
This is an issue that White says she is very passionate about as a former teacher, but also as a grandmother.
“So I would like to see her attain her dream,” White said, referring to her granddaughter. “And she’s not going to be able to do that if she her senior year is so stressful that she can’t succeed. And so my goal is just to see these kids succeed.”
White said she wants other families in the county to know that they are not alone.