Bus No. 2167 left University Park Elementary School on the way to more equal educational opportunities, and Taisha Brown started to count the street signs.

The kids who live close enough to come here waved goodbye, and the kids who live far enough away to come here waved back. There are four buses. Capacity on Bus No. 2167 is 65, so there are 65 kids on it.

Every day, Taisha counts the street signs on the way home, at least until she gets to 59.

"My mom, she's never been this far," Taisha said.

"I want her to come to my school sometime. So I'm trying to show her it's not too far, but I lose count."

While the 440 first- and second-graders at University Park were at recess Tuesday, a federal judge said half of them didn't need to take a bus 72 blocks from the Columbine Elementary neighborhood to learn anymore.

The way U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch put it, they have achieved "unitary status."

The way second-grader Lawrence Mason put it, "Maybe I won't get bus-sick and throw up anymore."

And that is pretty much what busing comes down to for first- and second-graders.

The bus passed the Country Club neighborhood.

"I tell my mother about the big houses we go past, and I want to live in this one with a big old dog and a red door, and you know what she said?" Chantyl Busby said. "She said, 'Dream on.' She's real funny that way."

Now that the schools are supposed to be the same, the difference is busing. About 90 percent of the kids who live in the neighborhood around University Park are white. In the neighborhood around Columbine, about 80 percent are black and 15 percent are Hispanic.

The bus passed the Botanic Gardens.

"I asked the bus driver, and she said it was big gardens or something like that, and then I told my mom, but she didn't believe me it was there," Michael Grant said. "We took the other kind of bus. The kind you have to pay on.

"Then my mom, she believed me, but she still didn't believe it, it was so cool."

Rashe Howlett fell asleep, and Rayesha Wright pulled her ponytail. Lamar Mason slid down so the driver couldn't see him in the mirror and made burping noises. Rudy Maihs kicked the seat in front of him.

Which is to say they are the same as first- and second-graders who don't have to be bused.

"Same old, same old," second-grader Danielle Barksdale said.

The bus stopped at the corner of East 35th Avenue and Elizabeth Street, the last stop, and Taisha got off. Four kids had left their jackets. It is one of the problems with busing that never gets brought up.

Taisha had lost count after 42 blocks. She said it didn't matter. Maybe she was right.

It took 21 years to get here, and there still is more to go.

"I told my mom it's not too far, but she said why go all that way just to see a school?" Taisha said. "I said because it's my school. Anyplace it is, it's still my school."