LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Jefferson County Public School hosted their monthly school board meeting Tuesday night. It's first time meeting since last Friday's controversial transportation vote that left parents across the metro with questions.
Organizers at the Americana World Community Center (AWCC) have been keeping a close eye on these developments to inform their community. Especially since they serve a large amount of non English-speaking families who have children in the district.
Lusvi Cazun works at the center and is one of the many single mothers concerned with their jobs and making sure their kids get to school. She's a Spanish-speaking employee who has five children that have to walk several blocks to get picked up and dropped off by a school bus.
"In the morning at 7:40 a.m. my two girls get picked up and at 9:20 a.m. they pick up the little ones," Cazun said.
She moved her family from Guatemala five years ago for better opportunities, but like other mothers in Louisville she's been trying to keep up with so many changes.
"When it came to changing the bus services I found out through my job here," Cazun said.
Rehani Fundi with AWCC said he's been consistently on the phone with parents asking him how they will be impacted.
"I was calling bus compounds to figure it out," Fundi said. "So many families were impacted."
Fundi said they have been attending every JCPS meeting to make sure every parent, regardless of language barriers, knows what's happening.
"We can see what more can we do," Fundi said. "What more support can we give to be able to help. What other people can we bring into this conversation so we can have a long term solution."
One solution they believe will help is having buses drop off students at the center for their after school programs like ready literacy and their ESL program.
"That's so important because immigrants, they want to go to college," Fundi said.
Cazun said having this option to drop students off at the center would benefit many families.
"Not all jobs will give families permission to pick up their kids," Cazun said. "Not every person understands you are responsible for getting your kids on or off the bus. It's more difficult for single mothers."
The AWCC hopes to work with the district to make the center a beneficial stop for students and an easier destination for parents to pick them up after work.
"We know we are capable of solving this problem," Fundi said. "I'm not afraid that we cannot solve it. I know we are, but we just have to come together. Look at different angles. Work with us. Let's get more support so we can solve this issue."
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