I Rely On PCS Transportation. Here’s How Its Cuts Affect Me.

Unbeknownst to me, Key Club became a second home.

After joining in freshman year, I started volunteering, interacted with and helped children during the holidays, and built lifelong friendships. As quickly as it fueled me with passion, the opportunity to keep growing was ripped away from me due to a lack of transportation from Pinellas County Schools.

Ever since I moved here from Albania six years ago, I remember catching the school bus each morning. My parents, thankful they could depend on the county’s reliable transportation, focused on other aspects of life to remain afloat.

In middle school, this schedule worked with our time constraints: take the bus, go to school, take the bus, come back from school, and repeat. My life, however, was going to change with high school looming. By freshman year, I started to join extracurriculars and explore opportunities.

Often, I had to implore my parents to let me stay after school to build relationships with my clubs. How could they let me? My school, an hour away, provided no transportation they could rely on for after-school activities. The length of the trip itself was one they could not be okay with me taking alone.

Understanding where my parents were coming from, I was left with the hard truth that building up my future self was going to be challenging.

Sophomore year began as the emptiest year of my life. I relied on the singular bus taking an hour to get me home. Events were impossible to attend, and I lost hope of being able to participate in anything that would bring me joy.

Whether it was a Key Club event where I would be able to serve my community or an event where I could connect with my peers through shared interests, the inability to attend left me dejected—along with the experiences I could have put on my résumé.

I watched my friends attend club meetings and volunteering events, creating bonds and connections. For me, they remained inaccessible.

Restructuring their routes to cut down on transportation funds, PCS left me to hope the next year would be better. I just had to work with whatever I had.

Now, as a junior, I’m starting to think about college applications. In my head, my résumé seems almost nothing compared to my dream schools’ guidelines. The cut of resources and care affected my academic life not only as a student but also interfered with my desire to work outside of school.

Because my parents were providing for our family, I had to worry about how to get home from the bus stop two miles away instead of which extracurricular activities I should attend.

On paper, the cut in transportation may not seem like a big impact. But for me, it limits my ability to enhance my skills as a student, stopping me from reaching my full potential.

September’s potential removal of transportation lines may save money, but in the long term, students will not be able to support their dreams when they can only depend on the county’s transportation.

The slow realization that it would be much harder for me to meet the expectations set by school, life, and specifically adults made me angry—especially when they are the ones pushing us to move forward. “Be active, volunteer, create something that’s authentically you to prove your worth.” I found myself wondering if these rules only applied to those who could afford to stay after. The school system was meant to help me reach for my stars but instead held me back, as if to tell me I was not worth the cost of transportation.

It takes me roughly two hours of transportation time to get home once school has ended if I am taking the bus the district has provided.

Instead of cutting down on funds, PCS should aim to add a form of transportation that would provide kids the ability to take the bus home at a later time. Working with PSTA buses is an improvement; however, a more reliable source that works solely with students would be an answer well received by many parents.

It’s also a way for students to pursue their dreams without restrictions.

Kaltra Xhoxhi is a junior at Largo High School.