Community Pulls Together For Education

BY LAURA RICHEY
Sept. 11, 2007

Photography courtesy of Jamie Rodgers-North
IS CARPOOLING THE ANSWER? Traffic situation like this are common in the Middletown School district this year. The city school levy failed last month resulting in reduced bus services. Carpooling may reduce stress of parents.


MIDDLETOWN, OHIO—With the second failure of an August school levy, Middletown parents are working to leave no child behind despite reduced bus service.

Since the Middletown school levy failed , students living two miles or less from the school no longer have bus transportation, leaving some parents in turmoil.

Jamie Rodgers-North is the mother of two daughters. The older attends Middletown High School and the younger attends Central Academy. Rodgers-North is one of many parents who feel they have a responsibility to help those less fortunate with at least a ride to and from school.

Transporting a total of eight children to four different Middletown schools, “is only the right thing to do,” Rodgers-North said.

Rodgers-North, a non-traditional student herself, also cares for her house, supervises her girls’ homework and takes them to band and soccer practice. She has little time for herself but enjoys “giving back to the Middletown community,” she said.

Some of her riders have parents who work and can’t afford to take off, some have parents without cars, and others are adult students who have classes themselves that lead to schedule conflicts. Some parents pay Rodgers-North with gas money or exchange baby-sitting service but nobody has offered to help with picking up and dropping off.

“I have only turned down one child. A neighbor asked if I would take her son to school. I told her no because she didn’t even vote on the levy. The levy failed by such a small margin that it really burns me up when people ask for my help but didn’t vote to help not only themselves but a lot of others,” North said.

Rodgers-North’s neighbor thought that the levy wouldn’t affect her because she isn’t a homeowner and is on assistance programs through the state. “Boy was she wrong,” Rodgers-North said.

Younger parents are struggling too. Kitty Hayes is a mother of three. With her husband driving the family’s one car to work in the construction business, Hayes is left depending on helpful neighbors to take her oldest son, Isaac, to Miller Ridge Elementary.

“I don’t know what I’d do without my neighbor,” says 24-year-old Hayes. “I still worry about stuff like vacations and times when I will have to find Isaac another way to get to and from school.”

Isaac, a kindergarten student, isn’t familiar with exactly how school works yet. “I don’t mind riding to school with my friend Randy but the bus sure does look cool,” Isaac said.

Middletown Police officer Jon Rawlins has been a resource officer at Middletown High School for seven years. Carpools allow traffic to flow more smoothly and reduce stress for commuting parents, he said.

“We are doing the very best we can to get students, faculty, staff and parents in and out of school safe. Our main concern is safety,” Rawlins said.

“For the most part, students seem to be getting to school and class on time. The main thing is for parents not to get in a hurry. We have approximately 2,000 vehicles per day on the premises and parents get frustrated with traffic in such a small area.”

Parents know about traffic procedures at the high school but some still do not abide by them. As a result ,Rawlins said, citations are being issued to those not adhering to rules.

Although the Middletown community as a whole is doing the best it can to help children get to class on time, some parents are not as fortunate to have a caring neighbor.Many are struggling to deal with reduced bus services alone.

Gordon Shepherd recently became a first-time father at the age of 64. A friend died, leaving her 9-year-old son, Brennan, behind. Shepherd took in the boy and enrolled him in third grade last year at Central Academy.

“In the past, the [Middltetown] city school bus would transport Brennan to a daycare until I got off work at AK Steel. Now I have to take an extended lunch and pick him up because they don’t drive them to daycare anymore.” That means economic consequences for Shepherd since he has to take time off from work to pick up Brennan from school at 1:30 p.m.

Tammy Gunther is a single mom with no car and two daughters --one in kindergarten and one in second grade-- to get to and from Amanda Elementary on Oxford State Road. She has been walking the girls to school this year, rain or shine.

“There will be days when I just can’t get them there so they just won’t go,” said the unemployed Gunther. “The girls are too young to walk by themselves and I am a bit scared of traffic on Oxford State Road myself.”

According to the Middletown Police Department there have been over 170 auto accidents on Oxford State Road since 2001.

Gunther,a newly registered voter, encourages others to vote since the last levy failed by just more than 100 votes. “The key is that we all pull together and vote.”

A Middletown levy will be back on the ballot Nov. 7, again asking for $4.4 million. Academics including foreign language, language arts, botany, physics and more have been cut from the budget since the school levy failed.

For voter registration information visit the Butler County Board of Election web site http://www.butlercountyelections.org/ For more information on the school levy visit http://www.middletowncityschools.com/ .

To start your own carpool try these helpful hints from Jamie Rodgers-North

• Don't Be Shy! Call people and ask them if they are interested
• Arrange a Get-Together To Get Acquainted! Set up a time to meet over lunch or after work hours to discuss the possibility of ridesharing.
• Let Democracy Rule! Devise and agree on the pool's rules right from the start:
• Take the Responsibility of Driving Seriously! Make sure your auto insurance covers everyone in the car.
• Follow Protocol! Once a pool gets started, punctuality is paramount.
• Sit Back and Relax! For the protection of all, the driver needs to keep his or her eyes on the road.
• Avoid Side Trips! Make sure there's enough gas in the car for a round trip.