Twelve Redcross students left stranded as school due to start

TWELVE students from Redcross village have been left high and dry after learning room won’t be made available for them to travel to school by bus.

Parents only received the news six days before the start of the school year and are now scrambling to try and source alternative modes of transport to and from Coláiste Chill Mhantáin.

The designated school for Redcross is Avondale Community College, but the stop where children living in the village are collected is around 5km away. The bus dropping students off to Coláiste Chill Mhantáin goes directly through the village.

Claire Jenkinson’s son is due to attend second year in Coláiste Chill Mhantáin and last year received a concessionary ticket which allowed him to take the bus to and from school. Now Claire has been informed that no concessionary place will be forthcoming.

‘I don’t know how we are going to cope. We only have one family car and my husband works in Dublin. It just seems crazy that we have only been given six days notice before the start of school,’ she said.

‘We paid up in July and the process started in April so I don’t know why the decision was made at such a late stage. If the school transport scheme can’t get their act together then they need to start as early as February so parents aren’t left in the lurch so late on,’ said Claire.

Many of the twelve students affected have been travelling on the bus to Wicklow town for the past number of years, with one student due to sit their Leaving Certificate next summer having used the service for the past five years.

‘Avondale Community College is the designated school for this area but no bus to the school comes through the village. If it did, then we would all be sending our children to Avondale. As the crow flies, Avondale Community College is closer to the village but by vehicle it’s quicker to get to Coláiste Chill Mhantáin and schools in Arklow and the buses for all those schools stop directly in the village,’ said Claire.

Bus Éireann operates the school transport scheme on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills, and while the availability of concessionary transport may vary from year to year, no reason has been provided as to why the twelve students will no longer be accommodated.

Concerned parents have written to the relevant departments in search of an answer and also held a meeting with Deputy Pat Casey and Cllr Pat Fitzgerald.

‘I don’t really understand what has brought about the change. One of the students has been using the bus for the past five years and suddenly there isn’t any room for them,’ said Deputy Casey.

‘Something seems to have changed but we don’t yet know what that change is. Minister of State for Training and Skills, John Halligan promised a review of the scheme a couple of years ago but we have heard nothing since,’ he said.

This time last year, 25,345 applications for concessionary school transport were received nationwide, but only 23,275 had received bus tickets.

‘ The bus doesn’t seem any smaller so we still don’t know why twelve students haven’t received concessionary places. Only two of the students are first years so the rest have been using the service before, some for five years,’ said Claire.

‘None of us really know what we will do. All the other parents work so making new arrangements isn’t going to be easy for anyone,’ she said.