Total travel time and energy to and from Wheels on the bus: about several hours.
"The first day I went along to school, I was like, do I actually want to do this? " Freeman, 18, said. But the ride swiftly became routine, and now Freeman doesn't hesitate to shoot down the notion of trading the two-hour day at the science and technology magnet school to the 10 minutes it would take him to get to his local high school.
It was once that students with the longest bus rides were individuals with rural addresses. Today, however, a lot more of the longest school bus commutes remain in suburban students, willing to put in the time so as to attend a prestigious magnet classes.
"Oh, I think it's worth every penny, " said Freeman, a senior citizen at Thomas Jefferson. "I'm very happy at this school. It's one particular opportunities that comes to maybe a lucky few students. "
Sometimes along the trips that students are able to endure even surprises adults.
"I'll let you know when I felt it -- with that rare occasion when youngsters miss the bus, and Now i am taking them home. I'm considering, 'Wow, "' said Montgomery Blair Senior high school Principal Phillip Gainous. Long commutes have grown routine at the Silver Spring school, one of the largest within Montgomery and home to magnet programs in communications and scientific disciplines that lure students from throughout the county.
School officials across the region strain to keep regular, in-boundary school bus rides under a couple of hours. But that has no displaying on magnet school commutes, which easily stretch longer. Students discover how to make the best of this: One recent morning, a band of Thomas Jefferson freshmen huddled around a small light clamped to a math textbook to analyze for a test. Another student strummed a guitar. Still others dozed to music from other portable CD players.
Montgomery Blair once offered a buddy program that gave far-flung students safe places to settle if the roads were tied up with bad weather or mishaps. But the program died out of lack of use, Gainous claimed. "We don't do that any more, because the kids are so used to traveling or waiting with the school, " he said. "They only sleep or do their study. "
Grace Chung, a 15-year-old Thomas Jefferson sophomore, tries to squeeze in a few study time on the bus. But she's seen far much more intricate maneuvers: A friend once made a total poster for spirit week, complete with glitter, during the commute to be able to school.
"She had her glue in addition to her glitter. She would pour it on the glue and then pour it the government financial aid the jar -- I don't think she spilled a single little bit of glitter, " she said.
Grace's starting school is Chantilly. Like just about any traffic-hardened veteran, she separates the girl commuting time into "good targeted traffic days" and "bad traffic days. "
"Sometimes if traffic is really good, we get there in 8 a. m., " vacation of about a half-hour, Acceptance said. "And sometimes we get there right before the bell rings" at 8: 30. On a recent icy morning that spawned many car accidents and backups, Grace got to school at 9: 30.
She sees the positives. "You make many friends on the bus. I can take homework that I don't discover how to do and say, 'Here, support me. ' There's some math whizzes on the bus. It's like study lounge. "
In Prince William County, 18-year-old Alan Hogan's hour-long bus ride is a lot more like those of old: No magnetic school, he just lives inside rural, western part of the county. The stars are still bright when Hogan gets within the bus each morning. He attends Stonewall Jackson High school, near Manassas. Prince William is building a high school for western-area college students, but it won't open until finally 2004.
Until then, the kids just get used to the journey.
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