NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — After months of challenges in dwindling class attendance compounded by a chronically late school bus, Metro Nashville Public Schools instituted a walking school bus for Napier Elementary School to help boost attendance and neighborhood involvement at school.
"We have the same challenge that many of the schools in the district have in that the school buses are coming to school on an average 30 to 45 minutes late. This is an extended day school. So we get an extra 45 minutes just to give instruction so that we can make it so that our children can be competitive. But if the bus gets here 45 minutes late, then like what's the use of having the extended day?" explained MNPS Community Achieves Site Manager Marc Anthony Peek.
Every Monday and Wednesday administrators and teachers volunteer to join students from Pruitt Library on the ten-minute walk to school.
"We just continue to support them by staging out here in the morning times to greet the students as they come. It's a relatively large ask for the teachers as well as different staff. Many of us don't start getting paid until like 7:45 when school starts," detailed Peek. "So that's a really difficult ask. So, right now we're looking to build a sustainable model. So we're just using two days out of the week."
"Over 95% of the students that attend our school, they live less than two blocks away from the school, right? So that's a beautiful privilege that we have and it makes it possible for the walking school bus to really work really well," stated Peek.
Out of the about 310 students that attend Napier Elementary, nearly a third of the students walk to school. In the three weeks that the walking school bus has been in effect, about 11% of the student body has been joining the walking school bus.
Peek said beyond improving school attendance and starting kids' days with positive influence, there is a mission to unite the neighborhood.
"They are in the process of gentrifying this neighborhood. Right? Some people would call it a colonization right so they're coming into this community. These houses are being built, you know, they're making changes in the community and they are slated to be renovated. So their community is about to be taken over," said Peek. "So it's important for me to empower young people to advocate for themselves and for those things that are important to them."
Some parents walk with their kids alongside the walking school bus.
"It’s one of the more positive things that I see around here. So, it was very nice to see," explained father Phillip Sepree, the father of a kindergartener.
Some parents also said they had been needing something like the walking school bus for peace of mind.
"I love it because I've been wanting them to do something for the kids. Because a lot of kids, their parents, they don't walk with them. And the cars — they don't care. They are just still zooming, even when you're with them. So scary," explained Brooke Chadwick, the mother of a first grader. "And then with the shootings and everything else is not safe for them. So at least it seems a little bit more safer [with the walking school bus]."
"We're continuing to show the community that we're not outside of the community. We are an extension of the community," explained Peek.
Families that wish for their child to be a part of the walking school bus should register through their online form.
