School bus won't pick up students in neighborhood 6 miles from public school in Harnett County

ERWIN, N.C. (WTVD) -- The price of growth is impacting families who rely on bus service to get their kids to school.

A Harnett County family learned that the hard way when they moved to a new subdivision and sent their daughter to a school the district said she could attend but failed to mention that a school bus route would not exist to take the 15-year-old girl to school.

"I said what do you mean there's no bus," Jean Boughton-Brown said.

When Boughton-Brown registered her daughter with Harnett County Schools, she was given the option to attend Triton High School, the closest school about six miles from her home, or Harnett Central High School, which is about a 20-minute drive.

"I never thought about not having any busing because we had busing in Morrisville," Boughton-Brown said.

After picking the closer school, it was then she learned, her daughter would get no bus service.

"I'm quite sure somebody around here got some kids that go to school," she said about her neighbors.

The school said the neighborhood is a new subdivision, and it has caused problems with the bus routes.

"Our transportation department is aware of the situation and will update families in this subdivision should an adjustment be made to the bus routes currently in place. New subdivisions can present a unique challenge because areas that were once assigned to a certain school may change with the addition of new homes," a representative with Harnett County Schools said

With this particular subdivision that Brown lives in the representative adds in part, "Boundary maps now divide the particular subdivision into two separate high school districts toward the back. Our buses do not travel the subdivision and the bus stops at the entrance of the subdivision which serves Harnett Central High School. Our transportation department has discussed the issue with the Harnett County mapping department and all options are currently being evaluated. The Board of Education is currently evaluating potential redistricting plans which may affect transportation to and from that area in the near future. It is not our intent to inconvenience parents like Mrs. Boughton-Brown and want to reassure her and others that we are on top of this situation."

Until the district comes up with a plan, transportation falls on Boughton-Brown.

"I get up every morning and take her to school and go back and pick her up," she added.

With all the growth in central North Carolina, parents should be sure to talk to neighbors and school district representatives before moving into new subdivisions.