Mark Vanderhoff
Reporter
First day transportation problems at Barret Middle School include long lines, confusion
DRIVING IN CIRCLES. MARK. YEAH. HEY, JENNIFER. RICK HERE AT BARRETT MIDDLE SCHOOL, THEY’RE TRYING SOMETHING NEW. IT’S A GRADUATED DISMISSAL. FIRST THE EIGHTH GRADERS, THEN THE SEVENTH GRADERS, THEN THE SIXTH GRADERS. PROBLEM IS, SOME OF THE PARENTS DIDN’T READ THAT EMAIL. YOU KNOW HOW THAT GOES. SO WHEN THEY PULLED UP HERE AND THEN WENT BACK TO THAT PARKING LOT WHERE EVERYBODY WAS QUEUED UP, A LOT OF THEM WERE TOLD, YOU GOT TO GET OUT OF LINE, GO ALL THE WAY BACK AROUND AND GET BACK IN LINE. AND WE WATCHED SOME OF THOSE PARENTS MULTIPLE TIMES GOING AROUND DOING LOOPS ON THESE NARROW NEIGHBORHOOD STREETS. WE GOT HERE EARLY JUST SO WE WOULDN’T RUN INTO THIS INCIDENT. STEPHANIE AND JACOBY DOHERTY SAY IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LINE UP ON THE CITY STREETS TO TIME THE STAGGERED DISMISSAL ACCORDING TO GRADE LEVEL. I WISH THEY WOULD HAVE KEPT EVERYTHING THE SAME. IF WE’RE GOING OUT ON A LIMB RISKING OUR JOBS, OUR TIME, TRYING TO GET OUR STUDENTS HERE ON TIME, THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO TO MAKE IT A LITTLE BIT MORE SIMPLER FOR SIMPLIFIED PART OF THE FIRST DAY PAINS AT BARRETT TRADITIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL ON GRINSTEAD DRIVE AS A TRADITIONAL SCHOOL, BARRETT LOST BUS TRANSPORTATION THIS YEAR, SO THERE ARE MORE CARS THAN EVER DROPPING OFF AND PICKING UP STUDENTS. THIS WAS THE LINE THURSDAY MORNING SNAKING DOWN GAULT AVENUE AND ONTO GRINSTEAD DRIVE THIS MORNING. BECAUSE OF THE DELAYS AND EVERYTHING, I WASN’T. I SPENT SO MUCH TIME HERE AND HOPEFULLY IT’LL GET REFINED, BUT I SPENT SO MUCH TIME HERE, YOU KNOW, IT PUT ME BEHIND FOR MY ARRIVAL AT WORK AT 8:00. DEMETRIUS WILSON WAS THE FIRST PERSON IN LINE AT 1235 FOR DISMISSAL, HOPING TO AVOID A LONG WAIT IN LINE. AGAIN, NOT EVERYBODY WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE NEW WAY OF THINGS. SO YOU HAD PEOPLE GOING TO PLACES THEY WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO IN WHICH THEY WERE USED TO GOING. BARRETT’S PRINCIPAL SENT AN EMAIL TO PARENTS THURSDAY MORNING WITH SOME MINOR CHANGES DESIGNED TO SPEED THIS UP. THIS WAS THE SCENE THURSDAY AFTERNOON WITH TRAFFIC AFFECTING BOTH GRINSTEAD AND FRANKFORT AVENUE, A JCPS SPOKESPERSON SAYS THEY’LL REVIEW THE AFTERNOON PICKUP TO AND POSSIBLY MAKE CHANGES. WILSON IS CONFIDENT IT WILL ALL WORK OUT. MY HOPES ARE THAT EVERYBODY CAN JUST COME TOGETHER AND HAVE PATIENCE. IF WE CAN HAVE PATIENCE, THEN THAT’LL MAKE EVERYTHING GO EASIER FOR FOR THE JCPS STAFF AND THE STAFF HERE AT BARRETT. NOW, WHEN ALL WAS SAID AND DONE, IT TOOK MORE THAN AN HOUR FOR THEM TO CLEAR EVERYBODY OUT HERE TO GET ALL THE PICKUPS DONE HERE AT BARRETT, A J-C-P-S SPOKESPERSON TELLS ME THAT THE BARRETT PRINCIPAL IS LOOKING AT WAYS TO MAKE BOTH THE DROP-OFF AND THE PICKUP, EVEN FASTER. LIVE I
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First day transportation problems at Barret Middle School include long lines, confusion
Mark Vanderhoff
Reporter
Stephanie and Jacobi Daugherty waited in line for 30 minutes Thursday morning to drop off their daughter, a seventh-grader, at Barret Middle School.So they arrived one hour early in the afternoon, hoping to avoid any further complications.Unfortunately, they missed the memo about a new phased pick-up, with eighth-graders released first, then seventh-graders and finally sixth-graders. They were told to leave and get back in line and looped around the neighborhood streets twice before it was their turn. "I wish they would have kept everything the same," Stephanie said. "If we're going out on a limb, risking our jobs, our time, trying to get our students here on time, they should be able to make it a little more simplified."Other parents told WLKY News the change was outlined in communications from the school, but multiple parents said they somehow missed the email.The confusion came after Barret and other traditional and magnet schools lost their bus transportation due to a new JCPS plan meant to address the bus driver shortage.More cars than ever arrived at Barret and those other schools on Thursday and the effect was clear, with long lines snaking through the narrow Crescent Hill streets and onto Grinstead Drive and Frankfort Avenue. The afternoon pickup lasted longer than one hour.Barret is making changes to its drop-off and pick-up procedures to speed up the process, a JCPS spokesperson said.In the meantime, one father urged his fellow parents to remain calm."It was a little worse than what we're used to," said Demetrius Miller, whose daughter is an eighth-grader at Barret. "But hey, we're adults. We have to have patience so we can show an example for these kids."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. —
Stephanie and Jacobi Daugherty waited in line for 30 minutes Thursday morning to drop off their daughter, a seventh-grader, at Barret Middle School.
So they arrived one hour early in the afternoon, hoping to avoid any further complications.
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Unfortunately, they missed the memo about a new phased pick-up, with eighth-graders released first, then seventh-graders and finally sixth-graders. They were told to leave and get back in line and looped around the neighborhood streets twice before it was their turn.
First day of JCPS comes to a close; when the last bus riders made it home
"I wish they would have kept everything the same," Stephanie said. "If we're going out on a limb, risking our jobs, our time, trying to get our students here on time, they should be able to make it a little more simplified."
Other parents told WLKY News the change was outlined in communications from the school, but multiple parents said they somehow missed the email.
The confusion came after Barret and other traditional and magnet schools lost their bus transportation due to a new JCPS plan meant to address the bus driver shortage.
More cars than ever arrived at Barret and those other schools on Thursday and the effect was clear, with long lines snaking through the narrow Crescent Hill streets and onto Grinstead Drive and Frankfort Avenue.
Motion filed to pause lawsuit suing JCPS over transportation plan
The afternoon pickup lasted longer than one hour.
Barret is making changes to its drop-off and pick-up procedures to speed up the process, a JCPS spokesperson said.
In the meantime, one father urged his fellow parents to remain calm.
"It was a little worse than what we're used to," said Demetrius Miller, whose daughter is an eighth-grader at Barret. "But hey, we're adults. We have to have patience so we can show an example for these kids."
