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Troy City Schools recently held its 5th annual Trojan Talk Luncheon. 

The luncheon gives school administrators an opportunity to share the school system’s goals, accomplishments and plans for the future. 

Superintendent Cynthia Thomas invited Jerry Lassiter, the Alabama State Department of Education Financial Administrator of Pupil Transportation, to discuss how bussing could be incorporated into the Troy City School System. 

Lassiter told the group of assembled education administrators as well as community partners the ALSDE could help the school system through the process, if the school system decided transporting students was something that needed to be done in the future. 

Lassiter said the process was rather straight forward, but the expense of operating a bus fleet was a lot more complicated. 

To start a transportation program, Lassiter said the first step was to send out a survey to determine if there was an interest among parents for student transportation. If there was interest, Lasiter said the ALSDE would send a team to look at route maps and to help determine how many buses would be needed. 

At that point, it would be up to the school system to purchase buses. He said currently, a school bus costs around $155,000 and has a delivery time of one to two years. So, he said if the school system decided to bus students, it would be a multi-year project to get started. 

Lassiter also said there were state programs to help with bussing as well as fleet renewal, but those programs would not cover all of the expenses of the transportation system, which would have to be made up with local funds. 

Dr. Christie Armstrong discussed the school system’s truancy prevention program. She noted that students with less than four absences had an 87 percent chance of graduating on time. Students on the other end of the spectrum – with 35 to 40 absences – only had a 1 percent chance of graduating on time. 

Armstrong said the school system identified students with truancy concerns early and had conferences with parents to encourage them to address the issue. She said letters were sent to parents when students reached five, seven and 10 days absent. Armstrong said administrators would meet with student’s parents after letters were sent. She said if the issue was not corrected, the Juvenile Probation Office was notified and would take the case from there. 

Teachers from the school systems STEM initiatives and programs also gave updates on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math opportunities for students in the system.