Ending magnet school busing could lead to unintended consequences, some fear

Ryanne Grace Rodgers can't speak highly enough about her children's school - Greathouse/Shryock Traditional Elementary - where she says the teachers challenge students with a rigorous curriculum. Her first and fourth grader didn't start in the school near St. Matthews until this year, but Rodgers said their proficiency scores have already jumped.

Teachers at the school, she said, "make sure the kids are actually improving and when it's all said and done, they're not just pushing kids along."

Because of this, Rodgers has no intention to move them next year, though she hasn't figured out how she'll get them to and from school now that busing will not be provided to most Jefferson County Public School magnet students. A single mother living in west Louisville with two jobs, Rodgers faces several barriers to making the 30-minute commute to Greathouse/Shryock twice each day.

"I love it and I want them to stay but it is a hardship for me," she said.

Rodgers said she mentioned the loss of busing to her boss, but there haven't been any changes to her schedule yet. She has a sister she said could help out sometimes. Aside from the commute tacking another two hours onto her already long days, she's worried about the financial burden of that, too.

But, Rodgers doesn't see another way.

"It's just kind of terrible to have to make that decision, to not make that investment in their future and their lives just because of transportation," she said. "It's not just about getting them to school but about making sure they can participate in good programs."

Enrollment shifts projected

Studies have found that transportation is an integral part of racial and economic diversity within magnet and district leaders have acknowledged that children like Rodgers' - Black students from an impoverished household - are most likely to lose access to the district's most coveted programs since board members voted to end busing for about 15,000 magnet students last month.

That vote came just shy of two years after passing a new student assignment plan that promised more equitable access to magnet programs for students of color and those who are economically disadvantaged. In addition to magnets becoming even more segregated, though, some officials and community members are worried there will be other consequences felt across the entire district.

Significant shifts in enrollment are possible because magnet schools attract students from across the nearly 400-square-mile county.

While the district has asked families to declare if they will continue in their magnet programs within the next week, there's no requirement that they do so by a certain day and parents like Rodgers aren't sure they need to make that decision so quickly.

Because of this, one fear, according to former JCPS Principal Michelle Pennix, is that schools won't know how many kids to expect, as more than two dozen are already over capacity.

"I think you're going to have a replay of some of what we had this year, in terms of gyms being full of kids with no place to put them because classrooms are overcrowded," Pennix told The Courier Journal. "We will have schools with teachers who don’t have a place to be because they don’t have enough kids."

This will further stress teachers and administrators, said Pennix, who worked within JCPS schools for 27 years before retiring in 2020.

"Principals have always made something out of nothing and teachers have but everything has been so chaotic these past couple of years, that they just can’t do that anymore," she said.

Board Chair Corrie Shull agrees, though he believes the optics will be shifted.

"My concern is that we will levy an insufferable burden on school-based personnel and the district will demand that those professionals suck it up - no matter how terrible the conditions are - and make it work," Shull said. "And by doing so, the crisis will have been repositioned from out of the community's view and behind the closed doors of our school buildings."

District leaders, however, say they are not worried.

"At this point, we are not concerned about total enrollment next school year," said JCPS spokesman Mark Hebert when asked if leaders were worried about the unpredictability in school attendance.

Will reside schools see more students?

Every student who chooses to exit their magnet program can enroll in their resides school the same day. The district has asked magnet families to inform them of their decision by May 14, and they've said some transportation requests made after July 22 might not be met.

Still, Pennix said she knows many magnet parents will prolong declaring that decision for as long as possible - which could negatively impact staffing and scheduling at resides schools.

"If I have a child in a traditional or magnet school, and in Louisville we understand that where you go to school is currency in our community. ... I’m not gonna fill out a form that I'm not going to come here, now. I am doing everything in my power between now and Aug. 5 to find a way."

"They’re still thinking about what’s going to come through, maybe (JCPS will) do something different, maybe something will work out, I might get a new job," she continued. "So, they think something is going to work out and if they are the type of parent who initiated the path to get their child in magnet to begin with, they are not giving up on that decision in May. They are waiting until the week before or even after school starts, which will cause lots of problems with the system."

Some magnet schools are likely to maintain their enrollment numbers, such as Manual - one of the state's top-performing high schools - which has a low rate of students who ride the bus and are economically disadvantaged - a group of students most likely to have to transfer to another school.

Others face a far more uncertain future. Young Elementary in the Shawnee neighborhood has no wait list and simultaneously, 73% of the school's enrollment are students from impoverished households who ride the bus. Only about one fourth of its students live in the same zip code as the school.

At Johnson Traditional Middle, the waitlist is less than 20 students long. Among its current student population, only 42 of its 665 live in the school's zip code. A big portion of Johnson students (about 220) live near the Saint Dennis neighborhood, which is five miles from the school but there's another 100 living about 11 miles away in Valley Station.

As the district works to try to gauge how many magnet students will be moving to new schools, it is also processing transfer applications from families who want to attend a school they are not zoned for. Those students will not be given transportation if their transfers are approved, but there is a chance more families will request transfers due to start time changing, again.

For Jefferson County Teachers' Association, these enrollment shifts - given teachers are moved to and from schools based on their number of students - are concerning.

"It’s a concern that has been held by our members and the district since the option was poised," said Maddie Shepard, the union's incoming president. "We don’t know how the numbers in enrollment will shake out but we do anticipate enrollment increasing at our resides schools, especially high schools. We just don’t know the scale of the increase."

The district, she added, is trying to plan for and anticipate the consequences of taking busing from so many students, "but sometimes you have to let it shake out and respond."

Contact Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: JCPS magnet busing to end leading to fear of unintended consequences