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Officials table action on request for out-of-district transportation

By Lynn Hotaling
By Lynn Hotaling Local school officials took no action last Wednesday (July 5) on a request for bus transportation from several Cashiers-area parents who prefer that their children attend high school in Sylva.

Speaking on behalf of 11 students from the county's southern end, parent Regina Marrone asked members of the Jackson County Board of Education to provide bus service to and from Smoky Mountain High School.

However, board Vice Chairman James Roper postponed any discussion of the matter until "such time as the entire board was present." Board Chairman Martha Queen and member Mary Jane Dillard were absent July 5.

Superintendent Frank Burrell told board members last month that he had received an informal request for transportation; board members chose to delay discussion until an official request had been received.

While the preliminary request concerned students who had attended Summit Charter School in Cashiers, school board attorney Paul Holt advised board members in June that if transportation is provided it cannot be limited to Summit graduates. Marrone did not mention Summit last Wednesday, saying only that she was speaking "on behalf of the Jackson County residents whose children attend and will be attending Smoky Mountain High School."

Transportation up and down the mountain is "grueling" for working parents, Marrone told the school board.

"Please put yourselves in the driver's seat of the parents who travel approximately one and one-half hours each morning... put in a full day's work, then drive the curvy mountain roads an additional hour and a half in the afternoon," Marrone said. "Those involved in car pools sacrifice their time and energy less often, but still the trip is grueling. Why should this be?" Her daughter will attend SMHS to take advantage of health occupations classes that are not offered at Blue Ridge, Marrone said.

"We would like nothing more than to have our children attend the so-called neighborhood school (Blue Ridge) to have them close to home. And how convenient it would be! Unfortunately, Blue Ridge does not offer the diverse program that Smoky Mountain provides," Marrone said.

"My son attends Blue Ridge but is not sure if college is in his future. My daughter, however, is interested in a health career. Smoky Mountain offers a wide spectrum of courses in the field of health and science. This is an example of educational needs. My daughter needs the program at Smoky Mountain and she needs transportation - a school bus to get her there," Marrone said. At the conclusion of Marrone's remarks, Roper followed the superintendent's recommendation to take the matter under advisement.

Current board policy allows students to attend school out of district as long as parents provide transportation, said board member Ray Trine, who represents the Cashiers area. Two of Trine's seven daughters are SMHS graduates and one is currently a sophomore there. About a dozen students per year request transfers from Blue Ridge to SMHS, Burrell said.

Blue Ridge Principal Lib Balcerek said her school's curriculum is not as comprehensive as Smoky Mountain's and that she'd like to see the two high schools collaborate on vocational offerings.

"I think we could operate two campuses and do some neat things for kids," Balcerek said. The third-year principal also said she didn't feel Blue Ridge is being hurt by parents' decisions to send their children to SMHS. "Parents keenly sense what their children need," she said. Blue Ridge offers only the "traditional" vocational course of business, home economics and industrial education, Balcerek said, while SMHS offers course sequences in health occupations, automotive mechanics, building trades, agriculture and horticulture. SMHS Principal Kenny Nicholson confirmed that his school's career-based courses are among its most popular. He and Balcerek have discussed a cooperative effort with regard to vocational classes but have not devised a workable plan, he said.

Students from the Blue Ridge district have routinely attended SMHS, Nicholson said, but have always been responsible for their own transportation.

Smoky Mountain, the county's largest school, ended the past school year with 897 students in grades 9-12. Blue Ridge, the system's smallest, had 274 students in grades K-12 and 84 in high school.

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