This article was also posted in The Courier Journal. It was contributed to by Courier Journal education reporter Krista Johnson and edited by Courier Journal editor Bailey Loosemore.

Community members and students expressed mixed feedback after Jefferson County Public Schools began to provide some magnet students transportation once again on March 17.

Service was returned for all students at one middle and two elementary schools, along with a portion of high schoolers at Butler, Male and Manual who qualify for free and reduced lunch — a deal that still leaves thousands of magnet students off bus rosters and that highlights the financial status of some who choose to take advantage of the service.

In partnership with The Courier Journal, Manual RedEye staff spoke with several students to learn how they were feeling about the changes to magnet transportation, which will remain in place next school year. RedEye, the independent student news publication for Manual, strives to represent student perspectives in its coverage of community issues and events.

Though some expressed gratitude for the return, others shared concerns about the disproportionate impact the changes in busing have had on minority students. They also worry about students who did not regain transportation but still need the support.

“I was really excited to hear that the busing was returning,” said Kennedy Miles, a junior at Manual who is riding the bus again. “For me personally, my mom, she works two jobs, so it’s really hard for her to go, like, to drive me to and from school.”

From the first week of the 2024-25 school year, Miles recounted how she has been 20 to 30 minutes late almost every day, affecting her grades and general mental health.

“I wish people understood how stressing it really is, and I wish people cared about how bad the situation really is,” she said.

After struggling all school year to secure a ride, even resorting to Uber until it got too expensive for her family, Miles noted that she is grateful to have a bus back. However, she worries about the students still struggling.

“What about the people that aren’t free and reduced lunch, but they still really do suffer?” Miles questioned. “They’re still barely surviving, but they still can’t get a bus because they’re only focusing on socioeconomic stuff and not even people’s situations.”

Transportation changes raise concerns of equity issues

The return of some transportation came after the Jefferson County Board of Education voted 4-3 last April to end busing for most magnet and traditional schools in the district in an effort to get most students to and from school on time. The decision, made after more than a year of delays and route issues, caused extreme response, mostly negative, from the public.

“I am incredibly disappointed in what the board did tonight. I mean the meeting itself was an act of white supremacy,” Lyndon Pryor, then chief engagement officer at the Louisville Urban League, said after the April vote.

Many Black community leaders, like Pryor, had concerns over how busing plans would impact racial equity, after supporting a new student assignment plan with a promise from the district that access to magnets would be expanded for students of color and those from impoverished households.

The nature of the last-minute April vote, which did not allow for public comment, further upset those in attendance. When it came time to vote, board members were divided along racial lines, with each of the three “nays” coming from Black members.

Some of the fears voiced by critics have been validated, with fewer students applying to magnets and a greater number leaving through this school year compared to the year prior, district data shows. Additionally, students have expressed their views that the new transportation system for some magnet schools, while socioeconomic in nature, divides students along racial lines.

This March, busing was restored for all students at Coleridge-Taylor Elementary, Young Elementary and Johnson Traditional Middle, in addition to free and reduced lunch students at the three high schools. The compromise meant nearly 3,000 students could opt back into district-provided transportation, leaving behind about 12,000 students who in the years prior could take advantage of the service.

Miles, the Manual student, noted how when she and her fellow bus riders were called down to the office to receive information on the return of transportation, almost all of them were Black.

“I think it’s impacted a lot of kids a lot,” Miles said. “I think specifically, honestly, like minorities and stuff like that. It just wasn’t fair.”

In an email to The Courier Journal, one parent also questioned whether the situation would illuminate inequities among students.

“That seems to be an equity issue in that it will be made obvious who does qualify for free lunch,” Krista Drescher-Burke wrote. “So kids who were previously at the same bus stop will know who of their peers are ‘poor’ and who are ‘rich.’”

That, according to Superintendent Marty Pollio, was an issue he and his team “discussed thoroughly” when deciding if any magnet busing could be restored.

The reality, he said, is that “we cannot continue to offer transportation to kids to go to Manual who live in Valley Station or who live in Prospect.”

Because magnet students apply to their program of choice, they often do not live near their schools. This has meant JCPS buses crisscrossed the district to get students to their preferred school. For Manual specifically, that meant covering nearly every inch of the 400-square-mile county. This, Pollio has said repeatedly, was no longer possible given the district’s bus driver shortage.

In making the decision to offer busing back to some students, he said he decided “to return it to the neediest of our students so they could have access to our magnets.”

Additionally, Pollio pointed out that this system did not force students to use the service, with the district continuing to pay stipends to families who transport their kids to and from the six schools.

Those stipends are now at risk of being eliminated under proposed budget cuts.

Some JCPS students still left behind

Still, the various changes to JCPS’ transportation system have left some students behind.

Miles, at Manual, said the process of signing back up for busing was difficult, and she needed school administrators to help her throughout the process. Some of her friends, she noted, did not know buses were returning and struggled to sign up on time or complete their free and reduced lunch qualifications. Out of the students who ultimately qualified for the return of busing, only a third requested a yellow school bus.

“In some cases, families had not filled out the (free or reduced lunch) federal form to qualify and receive verification before the deadline passed to request restoration of bus service,” JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan stated in an email to Manual RedEye. “We do not know how many students believed they were eligible and sought transportation after the deadline had passed.”

For other students, the return of transportation came too late.

Amari Birch is a senior at Ballard who transferred there to receive busing after previously attending Male.

“It was a really hard decision to switch my senior year, and I was just like, you know, I didn’t really have a choice,” Birch said.

That decision was likely echoed by other JCPS students, given each of the high school magnets that lost transportation experienced a dip in enrollment this year compared to the previous, district data shows. In addition to those who left, the district saw a decrease in applications to attend magnets this year compared to the previous, when transportation was offered.

Birch says she appreciates the new people she’s met and experiences she’s had switching schools, despite having to leave behind programs she was involved in at Male, such as track and the Black Student Union.

On March 25, JCPS announced that students who left the six schools due to lack of transportation could sign up to return to those schools next year, in the case the return of service makes it an option for them. But for Birch, and likely others, the announcement came too little too late as she will cross the stage this May with her new class.

What’s next for JCPS students?

When asked what she wishes JCPS and the community understood about not having buses, Marissa Russell, a junior at Male, expressed the importance of understanding that the privilege of being in a magnet or traditional school doesn’t necessarily mean students can manage transportation.

“I wish they would understand that that doesn’t mean that we do have the transportation, and it still is difficult for us to get there,” Russell said.

Russell was excited when transportation returned to some of her classmates, as she knows many struggled with transportation. Before she was able to drive herself to school, managing schedules with her parents made getting to school difficult for her as well.

“I was happy because there’s a lot of people that I know that don’t have that type of transportation, like my friend was riding with me sometimes because she didn’t have a way to get to school on certain days,” she said.

More students may be able to drive themselves to school in the coming year, as Gov. Andy Beshear signed House Bill 15 into law at the end of March. Kentuckians as young as 15 can now schedule a written and vision exam to receive their permit.

For students who cannot drive themselves, buses will again be offered only to those who qualify.

“For next school year (2025-26) it will remain the same with all students at Coleridge-Taylor, Johnson and Young being eligible for transportation and students who directly qualify for (free and reduced lunch) at Butler, Male, and Manual being eligible for transportation,” Callahan said.

This means families who don’t qualify for free and reduced lunch at these high schools will continue to be responsible for their children’s transportation next school year.

“I think that it really does help, like it’s helping with me being in class and stuff like that,” Miles said of again receiving district transportation. But “I wish that more kids were able to have the opportunity because I kind of think about all of my friends that are struggling and are late right now.”