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LINCOLN'S LONG AND WINDING ROAD - Parent's Upset Over Long Bus Rides |
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Parents are complaining about long school bus rides to and from the new Lincoln County High School at Hamlin. Four high schools - Duval, Guyan Valley, Hamlin and Harts - were consolidated into the new facility which cost a reported $32 million, but there are indications the facility cost several million more. County transportation director Dana Smith said he has received complaints from parents whose students are on the bus at least one and one-half hours each way. Students in the Tom's Fork, Francis Creek and Big Ugly areas have the longest bus rides. Smith said he wouldn't have the exact durations of all bus rides until later this month. Lincoln County High School's unofficial enrollment this year is 934 students, grades 9-12. A consolidation effort was launched by the state after they took over the school system in 2000 because of poor test scores and the county's inability to fix up the schools. Most of the rural schools are still in disrepair, and student scores have not majorly improved with the state running the system. Still, state school superintendent Steve Paine has blamed the local school board for poor scores. School board member Thomas Ramey said "That's a stretch. I think Lincoln county citizens know how little control the board has over the system." An ill-fated 2003 lawsuit attempted to keep Lincoln schools in the county's rural communities. Smaller schools don't require students to endure long bus rides to and from classes each day, the suit said. The state ackowledges 306 high school students spend more than an hour on the bus (one-way) going to school. "The busing is really out of line and nothing we should ever put up with," said state school board member, Barbara Fish. "We want to put curriculum first, but by the time you get the kids to school they can't learn because they are so doggone tired." Former Lincoln schools superintendent William Grizzell acknowledged that some bus rides would be long, essentially blaming the roads.
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