Jenna Geiter is a sweet and polite 14-year-old girl, with purple toe-nail polish and neat braids freshly woven for her first day of high school.

In her raspy voice, Jenna says things like "okey dokey artichokey," and talks about her new sneakers, a pair of Champs, for her first day of high school.

Meanwhile, her great grandmother Pearl Ransbottom lists all the things that could go wrong before Jenna's new shoes squeak across the lobby linoleum.

Two weeks ago, Ransbottom, who has raised Jenna from an early age, learned that her great-granddaughter is not eligible for school transportation to McCaskey High School.

According to the district's transportation office, Ransbottom's house at 742 Marietta Ave. is 1.8 miles from the school.

School district policy, as set by the school board, dictates that elementary students who live within 1.5 miles of their school and high schoolers who have a 2-mile commute do not get bussed because these are walkable distances.

The boundaries are set according to what the state will reimburse in transportation expenses.

For Jenna, that means a 40-minute walk to school beginning at 6:45 a.m. or taking the Red Rose Transit bus for $30 a month.

"I'm not letting her walk," Ransbottom declared, and turned her anxiety turned to the public bus system.

"I'm having a hissy cause I'm scared to death that she's gonna get on the wrong bus," the great-grandmother fussed.

The $30 a month isn't sitting well either.

Ransbottom, a retiree, gets $1,500 each month in pension and Social Security payments. After mortgage bills, utilities, groceries and her dreaded 1991 Oldsmobile ("I hate driving," she says, "when that thing dies, I'm completely done"), she has less than $300 left each month.

"Why should I pay for (the bus) if I pay taxes," she said, recalling a $2,300 school district tax bill last year.

Ransbottom said she'd like to see the school board members and their children walk 1.8 miles each day.

Vince Doria, of 761 Marietta Ave., agreed. A single father of three, Doria is out the door for work by 6:30 each morning and can't drive his son, Aaron, to school.

"It just seems in today's day and age, like, somebody forgot something," Doria said. The forgotten, he explained, are the single working parents whose children deserve the same safety on their way to school as those aboard a yellow school bus.

Gene Miller, transportation coordinator at the School District of Lancaster, has been swamped with bus queries — about 50, he estimated — since school opened on Thursday.

The school district transports about 3,000 students each day, Miller explained, with more than 50 routes at a rate of approximately $170 per bus.

Lancaster, which has one of the highest tax rates of any school district in the county, is projecting $1.75 million in transportation expenses this year.

The 2-mile cut-off has always been the policy of the school board, Miller said. It has not changed, just as state reimbursement standards have not changed.

Not all school districts stick to the state-funded maximum.

Solanco, for example, buses all of its students. Lampeter-Strasburg drives roughly 600 students who live within the 2-mile boundary, according to its transportation coordinator Jeff Landis. The Hempfield School District maintains a one-mile cut-off.

Elizabethtown School District transports elementary students who live more than a mile from school and secondary students who live beyond a 1.5 mile boundary.

Lancaster City, however, has a public transportation system and streets with sidewalks, which are not always options in more rural school districts.

Miller said he could not estimate how many students live within the designated walking boundaries in the district.

But Delia Sanchez, a Lancaster City parent, said there are a lot of frustrated parents on High, Vine and Poplar streets, who must motivate their kids to walk to school each day.

"I've heard many parents complain about which side of the street determines who gets bussed and who doesn't get bussed," she said.

In cold weather, rain, or on icy sidewalks, the task becomes more difficult, she said, and many times results in lateness or just skipping school all together.

"It affects the attendance at McCaskey," Sanchez said. Poor attendance rates affect the school's Adequate Yearly Progress scores, she explained, which in turn can affect school funding.

"It's a catch-22," Sanchez sighed.

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