Corr said the gap plan, organized by board member Robert Walker, will likely pair volunteer groups with one of the six high schools. Though she didn’t have names of the specific groups volunteering, eight vans and eight buses had been offered by Monday afternoon, Corr said. The plan would use a pick-up and drop-off point in each of the city’s quadrants.
“We can’t take them all the way home, but we can get them pretty close,” she said.
One aspect of the plan would include a consent form to be signed by a parent or guardian, Corr said.
The strike by RTA drivers and mechanics leftroughly a thousand high school students to walk or find their own ride home. It’s doubtful the new plan would be up and running before Thursday, said Jill Drury, DPS spokeswoman.
Corr said principals are being asked to open school doors earlier and close them later to work around family members’ schedules, but “children are expected to be at school every day,” she said.
The state requires schools to provide busing for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, but not those in high school.
Drury said the district has also encouraged students to carpool with their peers, she said.
Corr looked into getting relief from other nearby districts, but found just six available buses.
“It’s just not possible because there’s a bus driver shortage. It’s a national epidemic,” she said.
On average, 88 percent of high schools students show up for class, but attendance records on the strike’s first day show just 80.25 percent of students in class with 858 of the district’s 4,400 high school students absent.
It’s estimated around 1,000 of those students use the RTA to get to school.
Students attending Ponitz Career Technology Center on Washington Street in Dayton said they expected to see fewer of their classmates because of the strike.
“I think with the RTA strike, it’s probably going to be a lot harder for a lot of students. They’re probably going to have to walk a lot more,” said Austin Henn, a student who said he usually walks to Ponitz for class.
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Dayatra Towles, whose kids normally take the RTA to school, said the lack of transportation a “big inconvenience.” Towles’s kids go to two different schools, which makes it difficult to drop them both off in the morning.
“I feel sorry for those who don’t have the means to be able to do it,” she said.
Leila Nickerson was running late for work Monday because she had to drop her son off at school. Nickerson said she was surprised the RTA and union members did not reach an agreement.
“I actually got up this morning and went outside like ‘let me see if the buses are running,’ but they were not there,” Nickerson said.
College commuters
Monday was the first day of classes at Sinclair Community College since the holidays, and the first day of the strike added an extra wrinkle for students who are trying to get to the downtown Dayton campus.
The college estimates that nearly 1,500 of its students use the RTA to get to classes every day, said spokesman Adam Murka. He said the college has encouraged students to reach out to their professors if they are unable to make it to campus for classes.
“We are actively working with our students to help them research and secure alternate modes of transportation,” Sinclair College posted on Twitter.
Sinclair communicated with students and staff via email and over social media about the strike.
Sinclair officials will be "closely monitoring" the RTA strike as it develops throughout the day as Murka said they are not sure how much it will affect students since the last RTA strike was in the 1960s.
“It’s a variable for which there’s not a modern parallel,” Murka said. “We haven’t dealt with anything like this recently.”
Some students at Wright State may also be affected by the strike as students there returned to campus Monday.
Wright State has three RTA stops on campus. One is at the student union, one at Millett Hall and another at the creative arts center, said spokesman Seth Bauguess.
WSU Provost Tom Sudkamp addressed the strike in an email to students, faculty and staff.
“To accommodate those who do not have transportation available, we are requesting that students, faculty, and staff work together and communicate as much as possible to minimize the potential disruption,” Sudkamp said in an email.
Bauguess said the university does not have an estimate of how many students use the RTA to get to campus.
“I am confident that the Wright State community will rise to the occasion to assist students and staff who normally use the RTA to come to Wright State,” Sudkamp said in the email.
WHIO reporter Lauren Clark contributed to the report.
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