Thumbnail photo: A school bus drops off students at Del Norte High School on Friday. Klamath parents say the bus to take their kids to school has been late 37 days this year, causing their kids to receive tardy notices. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
Before informing parents that the school bus has been late picking up Klamath students 37 days this school year, Chrystal Helton asked parents if their child’s grades in their first period classes had suffered.
One parent said her son is getting a C-minus in first-period math and was removed from theater and put into general studies to make up his work. Another said her daughter’s dance grade dropped and, because of the late bus, she’s relying on video recordings from her friends to learn the routine.
Helton, whose kids go to Del Norte High School and ’O Me-nok Learning Center, said her sophomore and junior years have history during first period. One has eked out a C-minus because he “busted his butt,” she said, the other is failing, though he loves history.
“This isn’t normal,” Helton said. “Kids should be getting to school on time every day.”
Parents are also receiving tardy notices and notifications from the School Attendance Review Board, Helton said. She acknowledged that one reason for that is because students often don’t check in with the attendance office when they arrive on campus. But, Helton said, no one has told them they need to do that.
“I have a 10th grade student who told me last week that when she goes to the attendance office, she’s treated with attitude and treated like it’s her fault,” Helton said. “We have parents who think it’s their fault, kids that think it’s their fault that they’re missing out or they’re failing or whatever it is that’s going on because of the late bus.”
Helton, fifth-grade teacher at ’O Me-nok, and Brie Fraley, a parent with a high schooler,, worked together to provide Klamath parents a safe space Wednesday to air their concerns and come up with possible solutions to present to the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees.
They’ve also deployed a community survey asking parents how often their child is late due to a late bus. The survey asks parents about their student’s academic performance, how they feel about arriving to school late as well as whether they’ve noticed a change in their child’s demeanor as a result.
The survey also asks parents to weigh in on alternative transportation options if the bus is late or missed, about whether or not the district notifies them when the bus will be late or absent as well as whether there has been a financial impact as a result of the late or missed busses.
Fraley said once her and Helton receive the data, they’ll compare it and share it with the DNUSD School Board.
“Our plan is to come up with a plan of action to bring to the school district,” she said. “We can come up with those solutions ourselves because obviously they can’t figure it out.”
Another offer of help came from Yurok Tribal Councilor Ryan Ray, who said he could speak to DNUSD Superintendent Jeff Harris and assistant superintendents Tom Kissinger and Greg Bowen.
Meanwhile, DNUSD’s plan of action is a $5,000 signing bonus and “retention incentive” for eligible school bus drivers. In a Wednesday announcement, the school district stated that there are currently nine bus drivers on the road where it once had 18.
DNUSD’s immediate goal is to recruit enough drivers to bring its roster to 13, communications director Michael Hawkins said. It also hopes to fill its ranks with long-term substitute drivers.
DNUSD is hosting a bus driver hiring information session at 3 p.m. May 18 at its 400 W. Harding Avenue facility in Crescent City.
The transportation department has gone through some turmoil recently. At a March 26 meeting, the president of the Classified School Employees Association Great Northern 178 chapter handed the Board of Trustees a vote of no confidence against DNUSD’s then-transportation director Christopher Armington.
Bus drivers at that meeting described a failure to show up to work on time, a lack of communication, rescheduled or canceled training sessions and routes not being properly reviewed.
Armington is no longer acting as the transportation director, Hawkins told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday. The district’s interim transportation director is Garrett Hatcher, Hawkins said.
Helton said she and other Klamath parents had been dealing with late buses since the beginning of the school year starting with the first day of school. She and other parents raised concerns to the Board of Trustees at a meeting in October. That early into the school year, the buses to Klamath had been late four or five times, Helton said.
As the year progressed, buses were late six times in November and twice each in December, January and March, Helton said, adding that she cross referenced the dates with the school secretary at ’O Me-nok as well as parents.
Helton said parents have been told that there are union contract rules at play, which prevents the district from asking a bus driver to pick up students in Klamath.
“I think it’s valid to be able to sign a contract, I respect that,” she said. “We still need to get our kids to school. So (maybe) we have a meeting with the union.”
According to Fraley, DNUSD is required to provide transportation to school for Klamath students. It’s one of several stipulations in a 2009 settlement agreement between the school district and several Yurok tribal members who were children and were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, she said.
That settlement agreement is the outcome of a 2007 lawsuit over the Board of Trustees’ decision in 2005 to discontinue middle school grades at what was then Margaret Keating Elementary School. In that case, Gensaw et. Al. v. Del Norte County Unified School District, the plaintiffs stated that the Board’s decision to close the middle school at Margaret Keating and reassign students to Crescent Elk Middle School violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as Title VI of the American Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit had sought to re-establish middle school at Margaret Keating. However, under the settlement agreement, DNUSD is required to provide morning bus service “stopping and picking up children at the Yurok Tribal Office between 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. as an optional alternative to at-home pickup.”
The settlement agreement also required DNUSD to make emergency transportation home available to Crescent Elk students who become ill.
DNUSD also agreed to establish and maintain an after school program for middle school students that includes instruction and activities focused on Yurok language, history and culture.
According to Helton, the ACLU settlement agreement sunsetted about three years ago.
“This is a legal document,” she said of the settlement agreement. “They owe middle school kids, at least legally, a ride to school. They guarantee that in this agreement.”
Helton also cited California Education Code 39800, which states that districts must provide transportation to and from school “when deemed advisable,” and Education Code 48200, the compulsory education law.
“This is a barrier to attendance,” she said. “How many of your kids have lost the motivation to go to school?”
Georgiana Gensaw, who has an eighth grader at Crescent Elk and a fourth grader at ’O Me-nok, said her child would rather not go to school than be late.
“After so long it was like, OK we’ll take you,’” she said. “We work from home, so that can only happen for so long. And then we have to adjust our whole schedule. Well now, (he) just does homeschool.”
Gensaw pointed out that Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District is able to get a bus to children living in Pecwan, where State Route 169 picks back up after dropping off in Klamath Glen. That bus takes those students to Hoopa Valley High School, arriving on time every day, she said.
Gensaw said she doesn’t understand why Del Norte Unified can’t do the same for Klamath Glen kids.
“I feel like that’s what our message is to Klamath kids is — you don’t matter, we don’t care,” she said. “Kids at Smith River matter and other kids in Crescent City matter and you guys figure it out.”
