Some bus drivers with two Calcasieu Parish School Board schools to serve pick up and drop off the students at one school earliest every morning and latest in the afternoon.

The other schools’ students arrive at school later in the morning and are brought home first in the afternoon.

It seems that a fair schedule would be one in which all bus riders who arrive earliest at school would get home earliest and those who arrive latest at school would be the last to get home. Then, all students would have approximately the same number of hours at school.

Would CPSB consider altering bus schedules to give all students a more equitable amount of time at school?

In response, Mary Fontenot, school system transportation director, cited Bulletin 119, a state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education policy.

“School bus routes must be designed so they begin at the farthest point from the school or schools served and proceed on the shortest charted course. …,” reads the policy.

“Exceptions may exist when local school officials determine it is more economical to do otherwise and/or when there are hazardous conditions.”

Fontenot said the Calcasieu school system’s standard practice “is to run the route in reverse in the afternoon.”

“In situations that might logically require modification or a different approach, routes are reviewed on a case by case basis,” she said in a statement forwarded to The Informer.

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Online: http://bese.louisiana.gov; www.cpsb.org.

Emerson wrote poem for marker dedication

For us old history buffs, could you print the poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson about “the shot heard round the world”?

The poem, titled “Concord Hymn”:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.

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The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

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On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

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Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

The poem was written for the dedication of an obelisk commemorating the Battle of Concord, fought at the beginning of the American Revolution, in 1775.

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Online: www.poetryfoundation.org.

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The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.