Having heard

your complaints, the Fayette County School Board now wants to hear your

solutions.

But step on

it.

A task force

charged with finding answers to the most difficult issues surrounding

cutbacks in school bus routes this year will be drawn together at lightning

speed, it was announced at Monday's board meeting.

Among the first

challenges: How to restore transportation to all of the district's elementary

school students, including neighborhoods that were completely cut off

Then, according

to school officials, the panel will turn its focus to next year, reviewing

current administrative regulations on transportation to see what adjustments

can be made for the future.

The deadline

for submitting a letter of interest to the school system is 4:30 p.m.

Monday, said Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, public information specialist.

Ten people

representing a cross-section of the county will be chosen, joined by five

school district staff yet to be named but likely including Superintendent

John DeCotis and staff from the transportation department.

Though DeCotis

gave no time frame for the group's first meeting or a deadline for finding

solutions, he suggested Monday night that his staff would continue to

move as swiftly as possible to address every issue brought to their attention.

The evidence

supports that, at least in regard to the plight of one mother who addressed

the board Monday night.

Thessia Benson

moved her two children, one elementary age and the other in middle school,

from Riverdale to Fayetteville, even though it meant a longer commute

to her job on the north side of Atlanta.

"I wanted

them to get a better education, and I wanted to know they would be safe"

when she left early in the morning for work. But she said her hopes were

shattered when she discovered through a simple search on the Internet

that a convicted child molester, required by law to register his address,

was living in the house at the very corner her children were told to wait

for the bus.

Moans, groans

and jeers went up from 200-plus parents at Monday's meeting. On the platform,

board members reacted with raised eyebrows, sideways glances or deeper

frowns. But nobody spoke.

Tuesday morning,

less than 12 hours later, parents at that bus stop were handed a memo

from transportation staff and told the morning's pickup would be the last.

In the afternoon,

the bus operator drove right past the home were the convicted sex offender

allegedly lives, and instead dropped off her charges in the cul-de-sac

of tthe street less than half a mile long.

Parents were

elated, though one who lives about midway down the street was still trying

to convince the bus driver to stop as she passed her house, instead of

making her three children walk to the far end.

Knowing the

bus driver, said the mother as she drove off in her minivan, common sense

will eventually prevail.

How to apply

Letters of application expressing

interest and qualifications for appointment to the "Transportation

Task Force" will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Fayette

County School Board administrative offices, 210 Stonewall Avenue West,

P.O.Box 879, Fayetteville. For more information, call the superintendent's

office at 770-460-3535.