I imagine if you asked any parent in the county, no matter in what school district they reside; "Do you want your child to ride a bus to school," the answer would be no. There might be some parents who like the convenience of a short bus ride, but most parents would rather probably not. Therein lies the difficulty. The schools are close together and in some areas, so are the students. In order to compromise, the Board really does need to examine the proximity factor I believe.
I was pretty much of the mindset when this all started that no, if they are already on a bus, then it isn't that big a deal. Before people get all mad about that, you have to understand, that was a common mindset of the school board for many years and long before any of the current board members were serving, even the ones who have served for a long time. I used to ride a bus from first grade til I had a car. It was an hour one way, so I was thinking, 'this isn't that big a deal.' But here, the traffic really is becoming a bigger issue and it is unpredictable and so the time the bus ride takes can vary by a lot. Knowing that some parents have students in multiple schools and not all of them driving yet, I have slowly started to see that while the folks east of highway six have a valid argument about driving as they have done it for years, so do those who are west of highway six and so do the folks who are currently bused south. I don't think the Board should push Option 1 through (even though it does address the overcrowding and the SES numbers) without trying to remedy the busing and proximity issues. But, I also don't think it is as simple as drawing the line horizontal through town, based on prior history with SES in the school district. It is going to be hard, but maybe they can get the percentages somewhat comparable without bringing in students who are essentially adjacent to another school district. I don't know.
I will be watching the meeting next week and hope the Board comes ready to tackle some tough issues.