10/18/16 — Schools prepare to open Thursday

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Schools prepare to open Thursday

By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 18, 2016 10:05 AM

Wayne County public schools are making preparations to resume later this week, with the transportation department addressing roadway concerns and "displaced students" in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

County officials, meanwhile, announced late Monday that they are in the process of relocating flood victims from shelters at three schools -- Carver Heights and Carver elementary schools and Eastern Wayne High School -- to a former elementary school no longer used for students, School Street Early Learning Center.

Schools were closed all of last week and the district extended that into this week. All schools remain closed to students today and Wednesday but are optional workdays for staff.

The initial plan was for everyone to report back on Thursday and Friday, with Saturday being used as a make-up day, on an early dismissal schedule.

On Monday, that was revamped slightly. WCPS announced schools will resume Thursday on a two-hour delay, operating Friday on a regular schedule. There will be no Saturday session.

Flooding and potentially washed out roads have been among the biggest concerns, as the district works to get buses and routes secured. Transportation Director Robert Lee has spent the bulk of the past week working with the Department of Transportation, as the conditions "keep changing," he said.

"The good thing about it is now things are getting better," he said Monday afternoon. "Based upon our information that we have right now, we think there are 30-some-odd roads that will impact our ability to get students back to school.

"What we see is primarily the southern district and Spring Creek area that appears to have right now been mostly impacted. I think it's 20-some-odd roads in the southern district, around the Grantham area, Southern Wayne area, and then Spring Creek area we have about eight roads that we're really concerned about."

Working with officials from both DOT and the school system, Lee said efforts are being made to change "pick-up points" based on the roads that are now accessible. His hope, he said, is to release that information by noon on Wednesday.

"The adjustments we make on the bus routes we will send that back to the schools," he said. "We're going to ask everybody to expect delays, especially in the southern district, Spring Creek school district.

"We know we have an untold amount of people that are displaced. We just don't have a good grasp on exactly how many people."

A number of students utilized the shelters, he said, but an undetermined number may have gone to relatives' homes, in and out of the district.

"What we're going to try to do, these people, we want to make an avenue for a way to get those people back to their home school," he said. "So even if we have to go out of district for a short period of time, we're going to make a way to get those students back to their home school. That's going to take some time and people just need to try to be patient.

"I don't want to tell you the bus is going to be at place 'x' at a certain time come Thursday morning, and it takes longer because when we go on these different roads that we perhaps did not normally travel on, we don't know how congested they're going to be because all traffic to a certain degree is going to be rerouted."

The bottom line, as always, Lee said, will be safety first -- for students as well as buses.

"We're trying to wait for DOT to give us the OK to go on these roads," he said. "We want to go on and check that road out and make sure it's road-worthy.

"We know when we go back to school on Thursday that we need to take our time and be careful because we've got people in so many different locations."

He asked for patience as the logistics are ironed on and modifications made. Running 195 buses, some forced to take a longer route than usual, every effort is being made to provide transportation for students, he said.

"We're going to pick everybody up and if a child is displaced out of their district we're going to go out of the way to make it happen and get them to their home school," Lee said. "A lot of people, especially if they're been displaced, they've gone through enough already so getting them back to their normal zone, people they're familiar with, will be helpful."

Parents can contact their child's school after noon on Wednesday to find out the latest on the bus stops. Families staying in a shelter, in hotels or somewhere other than their primary residence are asked to notify the school as soon as possible with an updated address.

The district will also be providing school crisis teams when classes resume Thursday, for students or staff members. Parents are encouraged to let schools know if there are particular concerns about their child.

"We recognize that many of our students, parents and staff are dealing with a high level of stress as a result of the circumstances they are now faced with," schools superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said. "WCPS will do everything it can to support our school communities during this period of recovery.

"We hope canceling the planned Saturday session will help prevent any further inconveniences for our stakeholders and hopefully help reduce the stress of those working to cleanup."