THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 69 lines
Each morning five children, ranging in age from 10 to 15, board boats in the isolated Outer Banks community of Carova to get to school.
Their parents have chosen to make the one-mile, 15-minute trip across the Currituck Sound to Knotts Island, rather than meet a bus in Corolla that travels to distant Dare County schools.
``I don't want to put my children on a school bus for up to three or 3 1/2 hours each way,'' said Charlie Pool, who has been transporting Carova kids for about five years.
Before that, Pool took his daughter, Jessica, and son, Kevin, to school in Virginia Beach, where he works. But the out-of-state tuition became too expensive, and he started dropping them off at Knotts Island Elementary each morning.
About a year later, Pool, a single parent, began asking the Currituck County Board of Education to help reimburse his travel expenses.
But after a discussion during Tuesday night's school board meeting, a decision is unlikely anytime soon.
The board tabled the Carova families' request until budget time. The vote was 3-1, with Sam Walker casting the dissenting vote. Chairwoman Mary Ellen Maxwell was absent due to illness.
Some school officials fear other parents would expect similar payments for transporting children to schools.
``I think this board would establish some serious problems if thesefunds were provided,'' said Schools Superintendent Ronnie Capps.
But board member Janet Taylor said the Carova situation is unique. It is illegal for school buses to travel non-state-maintained roads, such as those north of Corolla.
``These children don't have access to transportation,'' Taylor said. ``It is their right, and we do not have transportation for them.''
Others said the families knew the circumstances when they settled in Carova, which lacks paved roads and borders the Virginia state line.
Pool has asked for $1,350 a student per school year - the amount now paid by the county for 17 Currituck children to attend Dare County schools.
The county also provides the Dare school system with a bus to transport those students.
Each morning Pool takes three teen-agers to meet the Knotts Island ferry at 6:30 a.m. in his 19-foot enclosed boat. The ferry then carries them to the mainland, where they can walk to the junior high school or wait for a bus.
Pool also picks them up each afternoon.
Brenda Scanlon, another Carova parent, takes two elementary school children to Knotts Island Elementary School in her 17-footer about 1 1/2 hours after Pool. She also returns to pick them up in the afternoon.
If the weather's bad, Pool makes all four trips since his boat is better equipped than the Scanlons', and the younger kids wait at a friends' home until school opens.
If the sound is frozen over, someone must drive to the schools, being sure to leave home by 6 a.m. to get there in time.
Despite the challenges, the Carova children rarely miss school.
Pool said his daughter was never absent last year, and his son missed only a couple of days because of illness.
Pool also noted that the county currently pays for 55 non-resident students who attend Currituck County schools. Most are the children of school personnel.
``And that's what really gets me,'' Pool said on Wednesday. ``If we can afford to educate 55 students from Virginia and other counties at no charge, and we can't take care of our own, then something's wrong.
``I'm not trying to hurt anyone else,'' Pool continued. ``It's my desire to see every child in the world educated. And I want to see Virginia and other North Carolina students educated.
``But at the same time, we've got to take care of our own.''