If you think you've been reading an awful lot about school buses in the News & Record lately, you're right.
That's because the Guilford County Schools, in an effort to save money and reduce some lengthy bus rides endured last year by magnet-school students, introduced a new bus system this year that involved students' transferring from one bus to another at "hubs" in the mornings and afternoons. Problem was, almost everything that could go wrong did. The computer software (ancient by computer standards) couldn't do what was asked of it. Students' names were lost by the software, or were never entered in the first place. Students were stranded at stops. Buses ran way late. Parents couldn't get through on the phone to get information. And on and on. If you've read the N&R recently, you already know all this.
But has the N&R overplayed this story? A few readers have said so, as did Superintendent Terry Grier, who called twice -- the second time contacting one of our education reporters at home -- to complain about what he considered excessive coverage of the issue.
Well, I won't speak for the News & Record -- I'll leave that to Editor John Robinson. But as the editor who works with our education reporters (temporarily; some editors are out on special assignment or cross-training), and in the interest of engendering the kind of transparency I think newspapers need more of -- and that blogs can provide -- I'm happy to talk about why *I* think our coverage has been appropriate. (Full disclosure: I have a child at a magnet school. But we've always driven her to school because it's on the way to work, so I have no direct involvement in the issue.)
My reasons, in no particular order:
The problems affected hundreds of families. Parents who hadn't been planning to worry about how their kids were going to get to school in the morning and home in the afternoon suddenly had to make plans on short notice. For many of those families, the problems were a huge disruption.
These weren't just minor glitches. Not only was the number of people affected very high, the nature of the problems also was severe: Some children didn't get home Aug. 11 until after 8 p.m.
The safety of children was at issue, or at least appeared to be to many parents. It's not hard to see why: If I had a kindergartner due home on the bus at, say, 4 p.m., and he hadn't arrived by 4:15 p.m., I'd be calling the school, and if I didn't know anything by 4:30, I'd be calling the police. Moreover, at least initially, it was far from clear that children were being safely and adequately supervised at the "hubs," or bus transfer points.
The problems took days and days to fix, and the longer fixing the problems took, the more newsworthy the problems became.
The hub system had been touted as a way of creating shorter routes, and it appeared to be doing just the opposite.
In a time of tight budgets, the hub system had been touted as a way of saving a lot of money by using fewer routes and fewer buses, and fixing the problems clearly was going to eat into those projected savings to an extent that, to many parents, called into question this particular rationale.
At least some of the problems appeared to have been preventable. The school system has admitted that it delayed its deadline for requesting transportation. In so doing, it gave itself less time than planned to prepare routes and denied itself time to try a "dry run" both in terms of running the computer software and in driving the actual routes.
As the school system has admitted, the problems were exacerbated in many cases by poor communication.
Readers were telling our education reporters, by phone and e-mail, that this was a problem they wanted to know more about.
The N&R's franchise is local news. At the same time, readers have shown a hunger for stories that touch on common or universal experiences -- they want to see things in the paper that reflect the reality of their own lives and the lives of people they know. In those terms, this story was just about as local and as universal as a story can get.
News coverage decisions are inherently subjective, and no one has a monopoly on the "right" coverage plan. For that reason, many such decisions at the N&R tend to be by consensus or at least through consultation, so as to get the benefit of as many different viewpoints and perspectives as possible. We also try hard to listen and respond to readers. In this case, that feedback appears to confirm my opinion that our coverage has been appropriate. But I'm open to opposing viewpoints. If you've got one, please give me a shout.
Comments (1)
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I'm livid that Grier has called the N&R asking for less coverage of the bus fiasco!!!! So, basically he's on his knees begging the paper to keep the chaos a big secret?? I reluctantly send 3 kids to 3 different GCS and all I can say is that this system is a joke. My children have gone to school in 3 different states, public and private and I have to say that I have NEVER seen such a poorly run school system. How interesting it will be when the word gets out that he is asking for less publicity over this issue--shame on him! I'm sure it would be a different story had it been HIS child (although I know they are all older) on the bus that didn't arrive home till 8:00!! He makes me sick!
Posted on August 26, 2004 2:29 PM