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Prince George’s County Public Schools is warning parents that the start of the school year could include some transportation hiccups, since the Maryland school system still needs to hire more than 100 new bus drivers.
The vacancy rate is actually better than it has been in recent years, but about 200 bus routes remain without an assigned bus and driver. School leaders are stressing that doesn’t mean kids and families are on their own.
“The first weeks of school can be a little difficult with transportation because you never know who’s going to show up, and we have to constantly make adjustments to make sure we’ve got the right amount of support to get everybody to and from,” interim Superintendent Shawn Joseph said. “But after the first two weeks, it should subside.”
About 86,000 families have already told the county their kids will be riding buses to and from school, but Joseph admitted other families might just send their kids to the bus stop anyway. Learning exactly which buses will be packed and which might be able to be adjusted will be part of that calibration process. In the meantime, Joseph is asking for patience, but promised kids will still get to school.
“Bus drivers have specific routes that they are assigned to, and then once they complete their assigned route, they go double loop back and forth,” he said.
The county is also making an effort to let students and their parents who might be immigrants know that they’re welcome inside county schools. On the first day of school, Prince George’s County Police Chief George Nader was in Langley Park to high-five students returning to school and serve as a crossing guard in a show of welcoming solidarity.
On Monday, the school system also put out a letter reaffirming its commitment to welcoming families of all nationalities.
“My father immigrated here from Antigua, so I’m very sensitive to issues of immigration,” Joseph said. “I think families need to know, first and foremost, they’re safe.”
School officials added they’ve been preparing staff on how to handle any immigration enforcement that might target Prince George’s County schools.
“Our Hispanic families are absolutely top of mind for all of us in the school system,” said Aimee Olivo, who represents District 4 on the county’s Board of Education. “We know that our school building employees are very aware of the protocols and what they should do and how they should handle things.”
Joseph said a huge number of students were either born somewhere else, or their parents were, and immigrated to America. Last year, about 40% of the county’s nearly 133,000 students identified as Hispanic.
“We’re going to open our doors to all families, to all students, and then we’re going to be an oasis in our community,” said Gorman Brown, the principal at Flowers High School for the last 14 years.
A similar promise was made by Robin Brown, who is also on the Board of Education and has a son at Flowers High School.
“Once you’re in our building, we will educate you,” she said. “It is nonnegotiable. Every student in the state of Maryland deserves top-tier education.”
That doesn’t just apply to Hispanic students.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve invited a new Middle Eastern community and a large number of Afghani students here in the building,” Gorman said. “So we have to kind of learn about them and learn about their culture, their values, and then help them to interweave their thoughts and values and goals and dreams and hopes into the into that of our school community. It’s just something in your heart you have to be committed to.”
That can mean providing help with food and groceries, clothing that falls under the school uniform policy, or even getting a clear backpack.
“We will continue to lean into the discomfort of having to say the things that may not always be accepted or that might not always be easy to hear, but we know that at some point we’ve got to say something, we have to do something,” Gorman said. “We have to make sure that our community and our students feel protected.”
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