Guilford schools changing where buses go

Feb. 12—GUILFORD COUNTY — Changes that Guilford County Schools officials are planning aimed at boosting the district's state funding for transportation could mean more students having to walk to school or needing private transportation to attend special programs offered at a distant school.

Faye Crowder-Phillips, the GCS executive director of transportation, provided an overview of the proposed changes on Saturday at a Guilford County Board of Education retreat at Penn-Griffin School for the Arts.

Under state law, any student who lives a mile and a half or more from a school must be eligible for school bus transportation. Areas closer than that can be designated a "walk zone" or "non-transport zone."

GCS has been setting some bus stops within what could be walk zones but will eliminate stops based on walkability and safety factors, Crowder-Phillips said.

GCS officials do not know yet how many children will lose bus transport, she said.

"There are very few students who will be walking a mile," she said. "If there are safety concerns, we leave buses there."

Another change will affect transportation to choice programs that are open to students countywide, including Allen Jay Prep and the middle college programs.

Students attending Allen Jay Prep currently ride buses directly to and from the school, but starting in the 2024-25 school year their bus will take them to a school where they will catch a shuttle to Allen Jay, and vice versa in the afternoon.

GCS also will gradually phase out providing transportation to middle college students who are not attending the campus closest to their residence.

For instance, the Middle College at GTCC-High Point currently has transportation routes that extend as far away as Brown Summit and Whitsett. Current students will be grandfathered in to continue getting transportation from GCS, but new students who live closer to the Middle College at GTCC programs in Jamestown or Greensboro will have to have their own transportation.

And when the new Foust Gaming and Robotics School opens in Greensboro, either buses or shuttles will be available to students who live within the Smith High School attendance zone, but others will not be offered either one.

Some of the changes will bring cost savings — the middle college changes alone are projected to save $1.2 million a year — but the larger goal is to increase GCS's transportation efficiency rating.

Crowder-Phillips told the school board last month that GCS in 2023 had an efficiency rating of 80%, far lower than the statewide average of 90.68%. The current state reimbursement rate is $1,199.94 per student riding the school buses, so GCS's reimbursement comes to $959.95 per student, compared to the state average of $1,088.10.

Currently, 29,159 students ride GCS buses, so the school district's reimbursement is more than $3.7 million less than it would be if the efficiency rate equaled the state average.

One significant factor in the rating is that parents of nearly 13,000 students signed up for their children to ride the bus, but the children never ride.

This spring, families at all schools in the Northwest Guilford, Northern Guilford, Eastern Guilford and Northeast Guilford high school feeder zones will have to reapply for transportation, Crowder-Phillips said. Officials hope they will not reapply if they have not made use of the buses.