Pittsburgh Review

Environmental Charter School at Frick Park recently issued the following announcement.

Dear ECS Families,

Over the last several days, the ECS Home Office has received some inquiries regarding transportation for the 21–22 school year. Today, I am writing to provide some updates and clarity around transportation for the upcoming school year.

First, in accordance with Act 372 of the PA School Code, I would like to remind you to contact your home school district to register your student and verify your address to ensure transportation is provided if eligible. Under Act 372 of the PA School Code, this request must be submitted annually.

I have included the registration forms for our largest districts below. Families registering for transportation must complete these forms shared by the respective home school district for each student who needs transportation. If your student attends a school other than those listed below, you may reach out directly to that school district’s transportation office for more information.

• PPS Form
• Woodland Hills Form
• Penn Hills Form

Furthermore, Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) recently announced updated proposals and policies that may affect many ECS families including the discontinuation of alternate drop-offs. With this new policy, students can only receive bussing to and from one location. We encourage families who need after-school care to sign up for the E-Day waitlist.

Finally, we are aware that earlier this month, PPS shared a proposal that assigned Port Authority bus passes to ECS Middle School students for the 21–22 school year due to a nationwide bus driver shortage affecting the Pittsburgh area. While this is an evolving situation between ECS and the leadership at PPS, we are actively working on an alternative solution to ensure Middle School students have a more traditional transportation experience instead of Port Authority issued bus passes as we do not support or agree with a proposal to have Middle School students utilize public transportation to get to and from our Garfield campus.

However, we look forward to teaching students the importance of using the Port Authority and proper riding etiquette and preparedness for their high school years. Until then, ECS’s transportation coordinator continues to diligently work for a more suitable transportation option for our 6th–8th-grade students and will provide continued updates as this situation progresses.

With the start of the school year inching closer and based on recently updated recommendations from experts in health and safety, please continue to keep an eye on your email for important information regarding ECS’s Health and Safety policies. We strive to have an update for our community regarding our policies for the upcoming school year by next week. Please reach out with any questions or concerns you may have.

I appreciate your time, attention, and commitment to ECS.

Original source can be found here.