Meeting airs bus, building issues

High school students plan a door-to-door campaign for new school buildings.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NORTH JACKSON -- School officials and parents spent most of the Jackson-Milton school board meeting discussing bus route changes and plans for the November bond issue campaign to fund new school buildings.
Some parents said their children have a 90-minute commute to and from school each day, and they get on the bus about 6:15 a.m. Three hours on a school bus puts children away from home about nine hours each school day, they said at Thursday night's meeting.
School officials said they have been working to consolidate bus routes and create community stops rather than door-to-door stops in many areas to keep operation costs in check, particularly in light of escalating fuel costs.
Superintendent Buck Palmer said the district will spend $75,000 to $100,000 more for fuel this year, and travel less.
Bus routes
Changes are also being made to bus routes because secondary roads through residential areas of Lake Milton and Craig Beach cannot support bus traffic, he said. Palmer said school officials are working with Craig Beach Council and other officials on how best to use roads in the area.
Although much of the discussion centered on parents' individual problems with bus routes, others said parents and community leaders need to work together to solve the bus route problems and promote the need for new school buildings.
Some parents cautioned that the school district won't survive without new school buildings, and consolidation would result in children's spending even more time on school buses.
Levy campaign
High school students at the board meeting said they have started their own levy campaign. They will meet at 8 a.m. Saturday at the high school to discuss ideas that already include a door-to-door effort to explain the need for new school buildings.
Palmer said the district is asking voters to approve borrowing $12.5 million to build a new high school and new middle school on 25 acres the district owns on Mahoning Avenue. The property near the elementary school gives the district room for growth, including new schools and new athletic facilities, Palmer said.