New bus plan stands

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Oct 7, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — A judge Monday denied parents’ request for an injunction against changes to Lafayette Parish School System’s transportation plan.

The parents, Fran and Kevin O’Neal, had requested the injunction, saying the changes created a hardship on their children, who attend Our Lady of Fatima.

Prior to the school year, the O’Neals’ bus stop was within their neighborhood. Now the children would have to walk down Kaliste Saloom Road and cross Ambassador Caffery parkway to access their neighborhood.

The lawsuit also challenged the changes on the grounds that they were never approved by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, but Monday’s hearing was to determine whether an injunction should be granted to order the system to revert to its 2007-08 plan.

Before the hearing began, 15th Judicial District Judge Marilyn Castle told the O’Neals’ attorney, David Laborde, that he needed to prove that the new plan has caused irreparable harm.

“It’s a pretty high bar to establish,” Castle said as she stated that no basis for irreparable harm or injury was established during the hearing.

Castle said that, while she is “sympathetic” to the O’Neals and other families and recognizes that the plan was “fraught with problems …, it doesn’t rise to the level of irreparable harm that would require the school system” to make the changes.

A trial to address the merits of the O’Neals’ lawsuit will be scheduled sometime in the first week of December. Castle said she would allow the parties’ attorneys to set the date between Dec. 3 and 5 for the trial.

Changes in the system’s bell times led to an overhaul of the transportation plan, and approximately 50 buses were cut. The plan also changed bus stops for private school children living outside of their home school zones and for public school children who attended schools of choice programs.

More buses and stops have been added since the start of the school year after complaints from parents and school administrators.

The change was a cost savings measure estimated to mean between $2 million and $2.5 million.

State law requires that school systems receive BESE approval when transportation services are reduced or eliminated based on financial reasons. The system has claimed that the changes haven’t reduced services.

The O’Neals live outside the public school zone that includes Fatima. While prior to the change the children were picked up in their neighborhood, the new plan set collective bus stops for parochial, private and public schools of choice children living outside of their school zone.