Parent asks South Lyon board to allow magnet students' siblings to ride same bus

During the board's public-comment period, parent Matt Sasslin asked the district to review its transportation policy for siblings of magnet-program students.

"Our family is zoned for S Elementary," Sasslin told the board. "Our oldest has attended Pearson as a magnet student for the last two years...our youngest son will be starting kindergarten and he's been approved to attend Pearson because our middle son will be attending the same school as a magnet student, but unfortunately under the current policy our youngest son will not be allowed to ride the bus with our middle son technically because he's not a magnet student." He asked the district to review the policy to avoid splitting families between schools or imposing long extra commutes on working parents.

Sasslin said the existing magnet transportation arrangements already place siblings at the same stop and route in his case, and that available seat capacity on the magnet routes has not been fully utilized in recent years. "We're not asking for a new stop, new bus route change or anything of that nature," he said, asking only for policy review.

Superintendent Archbald told Sasslin the administration had received his email and would follow up. "We'll take a look at it and you'll hear back from either Mr. [Kuba] or me at least letting you know the status of things," Archbald said.

The board did not take immediate action during the meeting. The request was placed on the record and the administration indicated it will follow up with the speaker about next steps.