Confusion over busing likely to cause problems

A charter school official said pupils were sent busing instructions.
WARREN -- A mix-up involving busing and pupil enrollment for a city charter school could result in Warren pupils' being taken to the wrong place, schools Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg said.
In what Hellweg called a misrepresentation, the Academy of Arts and Humanities -- a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade charter school operating out of the former St. Joseph Hospital building on Tod Avenue -- mailed an advertisement to Warren parents stating that "if you live within the Warren School District, free public school transportation is available."
Public school transportation is available to charter school students, but certain conditions must be met first, Hellweg said at a press conference called by the district Friday.
"Parents should not put their child on a Warren City Schools' bus expecting that their child will be transported to the Academy of Arts and Humanities," she said. "We do not have any buses going to the school at this time."
The mix-up could cause hundreds of pupils to end up in the wrong place when Warren schools begins Monday, she said.
What was done
Warren schools sent out a letter explaining the busing situation to academy pupils, Hellweg said.
In addition, Martha Hasselbusch, regional vice president for Mosaica Inc. -- the Atlanta-based company that runs the academy -- said academy pupils were notified on how to get proper busing.
In order to receive public school busing to a charter school, parents must make a transportation request to the public school district and children must abide by lthe state-mandated walking limits.
The walking limit for kindergarten through eighth-grade pupils is one mile, and the mandate for ninth through 12th grade is two miles.
The walking limit guidelines are crucial because some academy officials promised door-to-door busing for pupils, Hellweg said. "This is a service we don't even provide to our own students," she added.
Hasselbusch said she was unaware of the door-to-door promise.
Another situation
Another problem is the pupils who have enrolled in the academy but have not notified the city school district, Hellweg said.
If these pupils wait for the bus Monday, they will probably end up in the wrong place, Hellweg said.
Hasselbusch, who oversees five Mosaica schools in northern Ohio including one in Youngstown, said this is the first time problems with transportation have come up.
The academy will work with parents to set up a car pool in the absence of busing, academy Principal Jennifer Morrison said. The school, which started Aug. 14, has been using community busing for the past two weeks, Morrison said.
"They [community busing] have other obligations and won't be available," she said.
Morrison said she hopes the incident doesn't damage the academy's relationship with Warren schools.
"I don't want us to have an adversarial relationship," she said. "We have always worked harmoniously with Warren schools. This is just a glitch in our relationship."