POPLAR RIDGE - A dispute between parents who send their children to parochial schools in Auburn and the Southern Cayuga Central School District, which is responsible for transporting them there, was mostly diffused Thursday evening.

A handful of parents who live within the district as well as district administration met in the high school library Thursday to talk about a new transportation policy - one that was eventually scrapped in place of another - that would have affected students who attend school at SS. Peter and Paul Catholic School, St. Joseph's School and Tyburn Academy of Mary Immaculate.

The plan, spearheaded by Transportation Supervisor Brett Johnson, called for parochial students who live within the district to ride on regularly scheduled bus runs to the middle/high school campus in Poplar Ridge, and then take a shuttle from the campus to Auburn. For students attending Tyburn Academy, this plan would bring them late to school every day.

Under last year's plan, one bus would make two morning runs from Southern Cayuga to Auburn. One run would pick up students who live 15 miles or closer to the district at their homes while another run would take students living outside the 15 miles from designated sites. One bus would pick up all the students in Auburn and transport them home in the afternoon.

Local school districts are obligated to transport students within 15 miles of the district to private schools if they opt to go there instead of public school.

Michelle Dean, who is sending two of her children to Tyburn Academy this year, was unhappy with the original arrangement, as she didn't want her children missing any part of the instructional day. Being new to that school, missing the daily announcements, mingling with classmates and missing some instruction could make the transition more difficult, she said.

Additionally, her children and many others would be spending a good portion of the day on the bus.

Superintendent Mary Kay Worth, who initially approved the proposal brought before her just a few weeks ago, said she fielded many phone calls from parents about this transportation change, after which she started asking questions about its feasibility.

“Then I really started asking questions and tying more details together and thought, ‘This one should not have gone forward. This one we needed to step back, take more time, ask more questions.' So we're not going to do it that way,” she said.

Instead, transportation will resemble last year's set-up with the exception that two buses will make the two morning runs. Bus stops for children living outside the 15 miles from the district were moved to different locations, a move that some parents complained about as being out of the way and unnecessary. Johnson responded that they were moved for safety issues.

District officials will work with individual families about specific bus stops and pick-up times.

Worth, who understood the logic of the proposal but said the decision was made too late, personally called parents affected and apologized, and she did so again at the meeting.

“I know where the error was made, and I'm going to own it,” she said. “I'm saying that because I understand that, in the end, I am the leader.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net