The Hidden Cost of the School Bond: Our Children's Time

When Moore County officials promote their $100+ million school bond, they show you gleaming architectural renderings and talk about "state-of-the-art facilities." What they don't show you is the most precious resource our children will lose: time.

Moore County's Bussing Disaster

Moore County parents remember the redistricting nightmare of 2019-2021. The school board's redistricting plan forced hundreds of students onto longer bus routes, disrupting families and communities that had been stable for years. Parents organized petition drives and packed school board meetings, begging officials to consider what redistricting would do to their children's daily lives.

One parent petition documented the reality: "We already have issues in some parts of the county where students are on the bus 2.5+ hours" each day. That's two and a half hours—150 minutes—stolen from childhood. Every. Single. Day.

Now, with the proposed bond to build a new high school and new elementary school in Carthage, we're facing redistricting 2.0. And once again, our children will pay the price in lost time.

Aberdeen Families: Prepare for Longer Commutes

Let's be clear about what this bond means for Aberdeen families. Currently, Aberdeen students attend Aberdeen Elementary and then move on to Southern Middle School and Pinecrest High School—all within reasonable distance of Aberdeen.

But where will the new high school be located? Commissioners and school officials are still debating the site, but proposals center around areas that would require significant redistricting. Aberdeen families could find their high schoolers bused much farther from home to balance enrollment across a new facility.

The new Carthage elementary school faces similar issues. The school board has already purchased a site on Vass-Carthage Road—out in farm country, far from established neighborhoods. Children from southern Moore County communities could face dramatically longer bus rides as the district attempts to fill this new facility.

Time: A Child's Most Precious Resource

Every minute a child spends on a school bus is a minute stolen from:

Family Time: Morning breakfast conversations. Helping with dinner. Playing with siblings. Reading together before bed. These aren't luxuries—they're the building blocks of childhood and family bonds.

Sleep: When children must wake at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. to catch an early bus, they lose critical sleep. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 9-12 hours of sleep for elementary students and 8-10 hours for teenagers. Long bus commutes make this impossible.

Homework and Learning: Two and a half hours on a bus means less time for homework, reading, and the kind of deep learning that can't happen in a classroom. It means exhausted children trying to complete assignments late at night rather than having adequate time in the afternoon.

Play and Development: Children need unstructured play time. They need to ride bikes, play in the yard, build forts, explore creeks, and simply be children. Long bus rides steal these irreplaceable experiences.

Extracurricular Activities: Sports practices, music lessons, church youth groups, scouts—all become harder or impossible when children don't get home until 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. after a long bus ride.

A Child's Day Should Not Be a Commute

Consider a typical day for a Moore County student facing extended bus time:

• 6:00 a.m.: Wake up

• 6:30 a.m.: Board bus

• 8:00 a.m.: Arrive at school (90-minute bus ride)

• 3:00 p.m.: School dismisses

• 4:30 p.m.: Arrive home (another 90-minute bus ride)

That's a 10.5-hour day, with three hours spent on a bus. For an elementary school child. This isn't education—it's exhaustion.

And this scenario isn't hypothetical. Moore County parents documented 2.5-hour bus rides during the last redistricting. Some rural students already endure this. The bond's new schools in poorly-planned locations will expand this misery to more families.

The Driver Shortage Makes It Worse

Moore County Schools recently announced it's facing an ongoing bus driver shortage and must "consolidate bus stops," resulting in "some stops being farther from your home." Translation: longer walks to bus stops and longer bus routes.

Building new schools in locations that require even longer routes during a driver shortage is a recipe for disaster. Children will wait longer at bus stops, ride longer on buses, and spend even less time at home with their families.

Why Location Matters

This is why the location of new schools is critical. The proposed Carthage elementary school sits on Vass-Carthage Road, out in the middle of farm country, far from existing neighborhoods. Children from southern Moore County will face long bus rides to reach it.

Similarly, the proposed new high school location will inevitably require redistricting that forces some students onto much longer commutes.

Aberdeen families need to ask: Will our children be the ones redistricted to balance enrollment at a new facility miles from home?

Carthage families need to ask: Why is the school supporting our students built outside city limits, against our commissioners desires? Pinecrest and Union Pines families need to ask: Will my child be redistricted to this new school?

The Alternative: Keep Our Children Close to Home

Here's what Moore County should do instead:

Address Specific Overcrowding Locally: If Union Pines and Pinecrest are overcrowded, add targeted additions or portable classrooms at those specific locations. This costs millions, not tens of millions, and keeps students in their communities.

Build Schools Where Children Actually Live: If new construction is truly necessary, build where families are actually locating—not on cheap farm land far from neighborhoods.

Prioritize Bus Time in Planning: Make "minimize bus ride time" a primary criterion for any facility planning. No child should spend more than 30-45 minutes on a bus, one way.

Invest in Quality, Not Quantity: Rather than building expensive new facilities, invest in making current schools excellent so families want to choose Moore County public schools over the rapidly-expanding alternatives.

The Real Test

Here's a simple test for every school board member and county commissioner: Would you put your own child or grandchild on a bus for two and a half hours a day? Would you steal three hours of your child's daily life for years on end?

If the answer is no, then don't ask Moore County families to do it either.

Conclusion

The school bond isn't just about money and buildings. It's about our children's lives—their time, their rest, their family connections, their childhoods.

Every hour spent on a school bus is an hour stolen from being a child. It's an hour that can never be recovered, never be replayed, never be given back.

Moore County officials failed our children with the last redistricting disaster. The proposed school bond sets us up for redistricting 2.0, with longer bus rides, more disruption, and more stolen time—particularly for Aberdeen and Carthage families who will face redistricting to fill new schools built miles from where they live.

Our children deserve better. They deserve to spend their childhoods at home with their families, not trapped on school buses driving across the county to fill buildings in poorly-chosen locations.

Vote no on the Moore County school bond. Protect our children's time. Protect their childhoods.

A child's time is precious and irreplaceable. Once childhood is gone, it's gone forever. Don't let Moore County officials steal it with another poorly-planned redistricting disaster.