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Sullivan County, Kingsport school buses to overlap in Rock Springs area

KINGSPORT — Sullivan County Schools will continue to provide bus service to the Rock Springs area where a new Kingsport school will open this fall.

And Kingsport City Schools will provide bus service to annexed and soon-to-be-annexed students in that area, along with free bus service to select tuition students.

Confused?

Sullivan County school system spokeswoman Janie Barnes said that despite rumors to the contrary, the county system will continue to provide bus service for students in the Rock Springs area, whether they are annexed by Kingsport or not.

“We’re still running buses,” Barnes said. “The Board (of Education) voted to continue running buses in that zone.”

Students annexed or to be annexed by Jan. 1 can choose to attend the new John Adams Elementary, Robinson Middle School or Dobyns-Bennett High School tuition free starting this fall, or they can attend Rock Springs Elementary, Colonial Heights Middle School or Sullivan South High School.

Under an April 2006 county school board vote that the BOE declined to change this year, any student living in an area annexed by a city can continue attending the county school for which that area was zoned.

Under a July 2 vote of the Kingsport BOE, students living in areas to be annexed by Jan. 1 can attend their in-zone city school tuition free. The city BOE at the same meeting considered, but turned down, a proposal to offer free tuition for students in areas the city plans to annex by July 2012.

In addition, however, the Kingsport BOE at the same meeting voted to provide free bus transportation for tuition students in the Rock Springs area if deemed feasible by Superintendent Richard Kitzmiller.

“The ‘reasonable’ part means the areas where we’re already providing services,” said Tyler Fleming, KCS director of student services. “Our plan is to offer bus service in all that area.”

He said examples are homes in the Peppertree and Hidden Acres subdivisions, many of which are in the city.

However, he said the system would not offer bus service for tuition students living miles from current bus routes and stops.

Barnes said part of the confusion on the county bus service may have come from the recent announcement that the school system had cut out three buses operated by bus contractors as a cost-savings measure.

However, the savings came from combining and/or reconfiguring routes countywide, not eliminating service to any area.

“We cut routes but not service,” Barnes said. “It’s confusing.”

Barnes said school officials are considering additional bus route efficiencies in the Indian Springs Elementary, Holston Elementary and Holston Middle School areas of the Central High School zone.

Running buses from different school systems on overlapping or similar routes is nothing new in Sullivan County, according to Barnes.

For instance, she said that on Buttermilk Road, behind the old Sam’s Wholesale Club building off Exit 63 of Interstate 81, buses from Kingsport, Sullivan County and the private Tri-Cities Christian School pick up students.

For more information on the bus transportation situation contact the city school system at 378-2100 or the county system at 354-1000.

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Nothing new.The buses/routes overlapped in Cooks Valley,years ago.No one seemed concerned then.Just stay the course.They'll come for you,sometime,& you'll love it,NOT.

Otis Vicars | 7/20/2009 - 9:58 AM - (Suggest Removal )

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