Walsingham to Expand Bus Service

By Amber Lester Friday, June 11, 2010

For many parents interested in sending their children to private school, travel can be a deciding factor.

If parents live or work far from their chosen school, it can be difficult and costly to travel back and forth to the school. Walsingham Academy is looking to relieve some of that strain for its families in Gloucester and Yorktown.

“We have been approached for years by Gloucester and Yorktown families wanting to bring their children to Walsingham, but many of the parents work in Newport News or Richmond and the travel time made the decision incompatible with daily schedules,” said Anita Magliola, director of admissions at Walsingham, in a release.

The bus route will have two stops in Gloucester and one in Yorktown; the placement of the stops will be determined once the school has a better idea of where families hoping to use the service reside. For now, the school plans to send one 15-passenger bus to all three stops; the school already owns the bus, which is currently used as transportation to sports events. “If more buses are needed, we will expand and if there is a large calling to have an afternoon service, we will reconsider the current plan,” Magliola said.

The school doesn’t plan to offer afternoon service because many students have afternoon extracurricular activities, and would be more expensive. “We want to make the service very cost effective for parents; it must be convenient and inexpensive,” said Paula Lumsden Haggerty, a Walsingham parent who is a member of the Bus Committee.

She said the cost to families will be determined once the school knows how many are interested, but to offer the service, the school will need seven kids to sign up in order to break even. “We’re just making it easier for families to get their kids to school,” she said.

For students who do not play sports or are between sports seasons, after-school care is available for Kindergarten-7th grade students in the Lower School until 6 p.m. and a study hall for Upper School students will be held until 5 p.m. for grades 8-12.

Offering bus service has had mixed results for area private schools. Hampton Roads Academy provides buses for Williamsburg, Gloucester, Smithfield and Suffolk students. Although the school is located in Newport News, 22 percent of its students live in Williamsburg or James City County and an additional 20 percent hails from York County. Families do pay a fee for the service, according to Elli Goyette, director of publications for the school.

Providence Classical School and Williamsburg Christian Academy do not offer bus services at this time. Providence Principal Susan Oweis said no one has expressed interest in the service. WCA Development Coordinator Denise Hammett said the school used to offer bus service, but found it wasn’t being utilized enough to justify the cost. “We have a really good carpooling network,” she said.

For more information about Walsingham’s new bus service, please call (757) 259-1430 or e-mail AMagliola@Walsingham.org.