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Home > Blogs > Lakota Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > November > 16
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Lakota to cut busing
“When I was in school, I walked two miles up hill…in the snow…both ways.”
I am sure this may be the response some people have to Lakota’s recent announcement that it likely will cut busing to half its student population starting Jan. 18. But, parents who spoke up at the board meeting last night had more concerns than the distance their child would have to walk.
A Woodland Elementary School parent, Julie Kruhl, said parents discussed at a PTA meeting how 597 students of the school’s 523 will lose busing. She assumes most won’t have safe routes to walk.
“I live off a subdivision off of Princeton Road,” she said. ” I invite anyone to walk Princeton Road and then walk Yankee Road and then walk Dutchland (Boulevard) at any time of day. In my mind that seems a complete impossibility.”
She expressed concerns for parents who cannot find transportation for their children. This was a sentiment expressed by several others.
Lakota officials have said it is now up to parents to find a way to get their children to school safely, because the money is not there to accommodate them. By law, the district cannot charge parents to bus their students. By law, a state minimum offering means any student that lives beyond a two-mile driving distance in grades k-8 does not have to be transported to school. And, no district is required to offer high school transportation. This means students who attend private schools also will feel the cuts. Mostly high school students are impacted, though a few who live within two miles of their private school will be in the same boat as Lakota students.
Already, parents are scrambling. Some have said they would like to network with others to plan for car-pooling. Others have said they want parents to organize a protest against the decision and demand the board reconsider its options before making this first cut.
How will this situation affect you? Will you watch the big yellow bus drive right by your home, only to pick up your neighbor’s child? Will you have to purchase another car, so your teen can drive to school?
Click here to see if you are in an exclusion zone.
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