L.A. Times: MAGNET STUDENTS RETAIN BUS SERVICE IN L.A. UNIFIED

by Howard Blume | LA Times LA Now

September 10, 2010 | 12:19 pm: Attention beleaguered magnet parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District: Your children will still be able to take the bus to school and back.

That's sure to be welcome news to both parents and students as school starts Monday for most students in the nation’s second-largest school system

The Los Angeles Unified School District had previously announced there would be no more bus service at Lane Elementary in Monterey Park, Palms Middle School in Palms, Revere Middle School in Pacific Palisades and Westchester High and Wright Middle School in Westchester.

In a clarification released Friday, officials said more than 50,000 magnet students and other participants in school-integration programs largely will keep their rides.

But several bus stops will change as the district reduces their numbers in a cost-saving move.

Here is the school district's statement:

“The Los Angeles Unified School District will continue to provide bus transportation for eligible magnet students:  for secondary students who live beyond a three-mile radius of the school of attendance, local stops will be located at middle and high schools.

"Bus stops will not change for elementary students who live beyond a two-mile radius of the magnet school.

"The district will continue to provide transportation for eligible magnet students who attend the magnet schools at Palms Middle School in Palms, Revere Middle School in Pacific Palisades and Westchester High School and Wright Middle School in Westchester.

"Transportation will also continue to be provided for students who attend Revere Middle School through the LAUSD’s  Permits-With-Transportation Program.”

For more information, go to http://transportation.lausd.net or phone (800) LABUSES (522-8737).

4LAKids: here's the missing info:

• Magnet Programs are Court-Ordered voluntary integration opportunities available to students in grades K-12 living within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Currently there are 173 Magnet programs located throughout LAUSD.
• The announcement above addresses only 5 magnet programs out of 173.
• There are legal questions as to whether the district can reduce the transportation to Magnet Schools because the programs re court ordered and the transportation is part of the court settlement.
• from  the district's statement: “The Los Angeles Unified School District will continue to provide bus transportation for eligible magnet students:  for secondary students who live beyond a three-mile radius of the school of attendance, local stops will be located at middle and high schools."

CAVEAT: …but those stops are not necessarily at the student's school-of-attendance!  4LAKids has learned of a student whose home school is Eagle Rock High who must get to Helen Bernstein HS in Hollywood (12 miles) to catch a bus to the Daniel Pearl Magnet School in the Valley. Eagle Rock, Franklin and Marshall Highs are all nearer to the student's home than Bernstein.