It didn't take long for volunteer

members of the school district's Transportation Task Force to realize

the daunting task ahead of them when they gathered for their first meeting

last week, but that didn't stop them from making some progress, committee

members say.

The 11 citizen members of the

freshly named committee, handpicked after meeting an Aug. 25 application

deadline, heard for more than an hour Thursday night from a state education

official before turning attention to the manila folders stacked before

them, overstuffed with pages of documents, logs of parent complaints via

e-mail and phone calls, copies of system and state policies and procedures

and more.

Scanning the two-page agenda

90 minutes into the meeting, a hesitant parent raised her hand and asked

chairman Fred Phillips, head of purchasing for the school system, just

how long it would last.

"This is a long agenda,"

she observed, glancing about at the other committee members squeezed into

a stuffy, hot conference room at BOE headquarters.

"Well, that's entirely

up to the committee," declared Phillips cheerfully. "I was thinking

10, maybe 10:30?"

Realizing the task before them,

they got down to business.

Last night after press time,

the Transportation Task Force was scheduled to present its first recommendation

at a special called meeting of the school board.

Pending the board's approval,

corrective action the panel recommends could be in place by the end of

the week to appease scores of parents angry at cuts to bus routes.

The top concern was the relocation

of multiple bus stops from inside neighborhoods to a single stop at the

main entrances to subdivisions, where busy streets and four-lane highways

threaten student safety, school officials say. On that issue, the committee

may have found a compromise.

It will meet again next week

to tackle agenda items number 7 and 8: Elementary children being asked

to walk too far from home to bus stop or school, and the situation within

"walk zones" where children must walk more than a half-mile

to get to school.

Girding them for the challenge

that lay ahead, State Department of Transportation Director Bill Bonnett

addressed the committee first, assuring them that what Fayette County

was experiencing was not unique or new.

"In every community that

has lots of growth, we've seen this change take place and it always flies

up in the district's face," he said. "As you build more schools

closer to more houses, it's not going to make sense financially to bus

children such short distances."

As the onetime head of school

bus service in Gwinnett County, Bonnett said the state's largest district

had 45,000 students when he left and 125,000 today, but the number of

school buses on Gwinnett's roads hasn't grown proportionately.

That's because Gwinnett employs

a number of techniques, including staggered start times, to get maximum

use out of its buses.

Federal and state law mandates

that "county" school systems provide transportation to anyone

living 1.5 miles or more from a school, Bonnett confirmed. City school

districts, however, are exempt. Still, only a handful, like Trion or Chickamauga,

in North Georgia, have no transportation. Carrollton City Schools launched

bus service to its students in 1995. The city of Atlanta was forced by

court order to provide buses in the late 1980s, Bonnett said.

Task force members were appalled

that state law allows districts to cram buses 20 percent above manufacturer's

recommended capacity, figured as three-to-a-seat.

"That was designed to

allow some flexibility for those times when you have more passengers than

anticipated, like at the start of the school year," Bonnett explained,

agreeing that some school districts might take advantage of the law by

forcing more kids to ride than there are seats on the bus.

"Believe me, you are in

very good shape in Fayette County," he said, telling the task force

that the average age of a school bus in Georgia is above 10 years, while

Fayette's fleet of 181 buses averaged just slightly over 5 years old.

Bringing the point closer to

the issues at hand, he illustrated for the panel why transportation funding

is so crucial: Of the 181 buses Fayette owns, the state pays to operate

barely half of them. County taxpayers make up the rest.

Task Force member Clarence

Leathers wanted to know if additional funding sources, such as a local

option sales tax on schools, could be used to finance the luxury bus service.

School system finance director James Stephens said it could, as long as

the issue was spelled out clearly on the ballot when voters went to the

polls.

But he dismissed suggestions

that those who want bus stops closer to home pay a user fee, while others

may choose to go without. "We are charged by law of the state of

Georgia to provide a free education to every child who wants it, and that

includes bus service," he said.

Who's on the Task Force?

The Fayette County School System's

Transportation Task Force was named from applicants who expressed interest

in serving and formally applied. The "citizen" members were

chosen by a team led by Fred Oliver, deputy superintendent. They represent

a cross-section of the county, school board officials say. Six school

district employees round out the committee.

CITIZEN MEMBERS

Michael Dean, Peachtree City

Kristin Ernst, Peachtree City

Chip Gjertsen, Peachtree City

Tedd Kemberling, Fayetteville

Clarence Leathers, Fayetteville

Connie Leary, Peachtree City

Sheryl Lee, mayor of Tyrone

Shena Manning, Fayetteville

Dawn Oparah, Fayetteville

Thomas Stephens, Fayetteville

CITIZEN EX-OFFICIO MEMBER

Delvonnie M. Burgess, chair

of the NAACP Fayette Branch Education Committee, Fayetteville

SCHOOL STAFF

Fred Oliver, deputy superintendent

Pam Holt, director of transportation

Karen Bullock, principal,

Kedron Elementary

Vicke Clute, transportation

staff

Roxane Blessitt, transportation

assistant

Fred Philips, head of purchasing,

chairman

SCHOOL EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS

Jim Stephens, comptroller

Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, public

information specialist

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