Charter school students living in the Whitehall-Coplay School District age 12 and over will be required to take public transportation next school year, prompting criticism from parents who say longer commutes and unsafe conditions would affect their children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy reaction went first to my students and my families,\u201d Amanda Cossman, CEO of Seven Generations Charter School, said after Monday\u2019s school board meeting, adding that \u201cmany of the charter school students were going to be facing an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school board, in an 8-1 vote, eliminated yellow school bus services for older charter school students at its June 22 meeting. In a letter sent to parents, a copy of which was obtained by The Morning Call, the district said the change \u201cwould optimize our resources and ensure sustainable transit options,\u201d and recommended that families take a trial ride to test the commute. It also offered families the opportunity to transfer into district schools.<\/p>\n
Whitehall-Coplay Superintendent Christopher Schiffert declined to comment. A LANTA spokesperson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Lori Cover, the first of 11 parents and one student who spoke during public comments at Monday\u2019s board meeting, said the district would not be able to monitor students\u2019 safety, while the lengthy commute would become a heavy burden.<\/p>\n
Cover said her 13-year-old son Tyler would have to leave home at 5:30 a.m. to attend Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School in Bethlehem, while her 8-year-old daughter, who is not affected by the change, would be picked up from home at 7 a.m., an hour before the start of the school day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe contacted me on the phone immediately, and all of his friends, and he started to try to spread the word and get people to reverse this change,\u201d Cover said after the meeting, describing Tyler\u2019s reaction. She feared her son would \u201conly have time to sleep and eat\u201d under the new policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease do not make families prove a tragedy could happen before acting,\u201d said Kayleigh Mora, a district parent of a Seven Generations Charter School student. \u201cThe district\u2019s transportation obligation should mean safe transportation that actually works for the child\u2019s school schedule and needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parent Guy Pascarella outlined his daughter\u2019s commute under the new system: two hours and 30 minutes each way, with two transfers and long waits at each bus stop. The consequences, he said, would force his daughter to step back from extracurricular activities and risk chronic anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because something can be legally attempted, does not mean it should be executed, and I think this board fundamentally agrees with that statement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
School Board Director LoriAnn Fehnel, who voted against the motion last month, said that she was bothered by \u201cthe uncharted waters your kids are going to face.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no charter school in the district, after the board unanimously rejected an application for a Whitehall charter school in 2024 amid financial and curriculum concerns.<\/p>\n
The busing change came amid tough budget negotiations; the board approved a 2026-27 budget increasing taxes by 4.7% and some parents Monday expressed disappointment and confusion over where budget cuts were made.<\/p>\n
There are 12 charter schools in Northampton and Lehigh counties, the largest being Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School. Its CEO, Susan Mauser, said after the meeting that the shortest commute under the new policy would be 80 minutes for a Whitehall-Coplay district student.<\/p>\n
She did not receive any communication from LANTA about the change, though Mauser said Schiffert reached out Monday to charter school leadership to hold a meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe agreed to sit down with us charter school CEOs so that we have an opportunity to share our concerns, and we are thankful for that,\u201d Mauser said. \u201cHowever, he\u2019s also indicated that they\u2019re not looking to rescind this policy. So we do still have great concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andreas Pelekis is a freelance writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charter school students living in the Whitehall-Coplay School District age 12 and over will be required to take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,16851,227,433,182,139,28,432,1654],"class_list":["post-255346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-coplay","tag-education","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-whitehall-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}