Rooted School Indianapolis opened its doors in 2020. This mayor-sponsored public charter high school is part of Eastern Star Church’s ROCK (Renewing Our Community for the Kingdom) Initiative. The ROCK initiative aims to improve the quality of life for Arlington Woods residents on Indy’s east side. Additionally, Rooted School Indy aims to help its students earn financial freedom by preparing them for college and the workforce.

However, is the price some students have to pay worth the potential future benefits?

Bianca Carter, mother of a Rooted School Indy 10th grade student, wants transportation issues fixed. In an email sent to the school that was shared with us, Carter said, “I doubt any parent would want their child on a school bus for 2 hrs on a one way trip to or from school. School is out at 3:30 p.m. I believe he should not be coming home after 5:30 p.m., which he has. And the times have been closer to 6:30 p.m. for this week. Because of this, my son has limited time to study/complete work, eat dinner and get himself ready for the next day. Catching the bus in the morning is just as bad…he now has to get up earlier to spend almost two hours on the bus in the morning.”

According to the Rooted School Indy student and family handbook, the school day begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3:15 p.m. The school day is 7 hours and 45 minutes long. However, on some days, Carter’s son has spent up to five hours combined riding the bus to and from school, nearly the amount of time of the entire school day.

At the beginning of the school year, Carter’s son’s pick-up time was 7:11 a.m. with a 4:39 p.m. drop-off time.

On August 21, her son’s pick-up and drop-off times changed from 7:11 a.m. to 6:39 a.m. and from 4:39 p.m. to 5:12 p.m.

A month later, she received another notice with changing times that were effective September 21. Her son’s current pick-up time is 6:27 a.m., with drop-off time at 5:18 p.m. The drop-off time is two hours after the school day ends.

Carter sent her email on Thursday, October 5. On Monday, October 9, she received the following response from the bus transportation office:

Hi Ms. Carter,

Thank you for taking the time to address concerns with our transportation. We understand that the bus routes may run longer than expected. Occasionally we do have substitute bus drivers for when the regular drivers are unavailable. I understand that this caused some delays in the past week and we do apologize for the inconvenience. If there are still ongoing concerns, please fill out our transportation issue form here. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention and we hope to hear from you soon.

Warm regards,

Transportation Team 

Carter was not satisfied with the response and felt it was a standard response that would have been given to any concerns and wished the response actually provided solutions to her specific issues instead of directing her to another form to complete.  

Carter said she had only once received notice when the bus was running later than the scheduled time. On that day, she received an email stating the bus would be 45 minutes late. When she spoke to her son, he said the school bus broke down.

Public charter schools enroll students from across the city, so the bus ride time can be longer; however, Carter believes her son’s bus ride to and from school is too long and impacts her son in a negative way. “My son has less time to study at home and spend with our family.” 

Overall, she hopes that Rooted Schools Indy can shorten the length of the bus ride to and from school, consistently communicate when the bus is running late, and respond to her specific concerns.

Rooted School Indianapolis did not respond to our requests before publication.