CINCINNATI — More than 9,000 students will be riding Metro buses to and from Cincinnati Public Schools this year — an increase of more than 1,000 — as many campuses will no longer offer yellow bus transportation to seventh and eighth grade students.
CPS said 2,938 seventh and eighth grade students will be riding Metro buses, up from 1,145 last year.
The change comes after the district cut $9 million from its budget, impacting students' option to choose between either Metro or yellow bus services.
"This was a hard decision, and a decision that I think the biggest change from last year," CPS board member Ben Lindy said. "I still think this was the right call ... I think the biggest concern I have is just the timing and how little time there's been for families in particular, I think, to prepare for this kind of change."
Lindy also mentioned a letter sent to interim CPS Superintendent Shauna Murphy from Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long about changes to the bus service this school year.
In the letter, Long said, "it is imperative CPS consider the substantial public safety risks and operational challenges this will create for our downtown community, particularly around the Government Square Metro Transit Center and the Fountain Square area."
Long also referenced the two attacks caught on camera this past winter in Government Square where one teenager and one adult were injured. The letter also requested CPS do three things:
- Deployment of paid CPS staff on Metro buses
- Deployment of paid CPS staff at Transit Centers
- Communication of Behavior Standards to Parents and Guardians
"It gives me great pause for our staff to be at Government Square to be on the Metro buses to be at the transit centers because we don't have the authority," Murphy said.
Cincinnati Board of Education President Eve Bolton seconded Murphy.
"I have no interest in having our staff be at the transit centers or Government Square any more than I want, no offense Metro, but I'm not asking you to come and teach," Bolton said.
Activist Iris Roley, who has been working downtown with other community leaders, said she was concerned by Bolton's language regarding the area.
"They're your responsibility until the children get home, they are all of our responsibilities so I just don't want us to start off that way ... I want us to really commit to true problem-solving," Roley said.
Roley and her team have met with young people and listened to their concerns, while also being present to cut down on recent violence downtown.
"Because they belong they should be able to go it shouldn't be the conversation of children should not be downtown, that's not what we should be doing," Roley said. "Problem-solving is hard, it's complicated, it's intrusive, it takes a while, but it's commitment to getting at the root of causation."
Metro released a tutorial video to new riders about how to ride the bus and the best practices.
For some Metro riders like Thomas Craddock, the influx of new riders could become a problem.
"I got to alter my whole schedule during school season so I can get me a seat," the Avondale resident said. "It's really inconvenient for senior people because they don't have any respect for you, you can't get on and get a seat."
Craddock mentioned how inconvenient it can be for senior riders like himself.
"Then, I come downtown on my way back home around 2:30, 3:00 p.m. it's a mad dash because it's packed, packed packed with school children," he said.
We asked him about advice he could give new riders.
"I'm not handicapped — I got a bad knee and they just sit there and diddle on their phones, I look down like that and they got their book bag here and they sitting there that's a whole empty seat, that the book bag is riding on, book bag ain't paying no fare," said Craddock.
