The decision to possibly eliminate a school bus angers parents.
Eliminating a bus route to save money was a big part of the decision to add boardwalks, bike lanes, and streetlights to Fraser Street, said Freeman Anthony, the project engineer.
According to state laws, if students live within one mile of their school and a safe walking route exists, the district is not required to provide a bus for the students, said Brown.
The bus route that would be eliminated serves Regency Park Apartments on Fraser Street. The bus picks up about 40 students from kindergarten to fifth grade from the apartment complex and brings them to Carl Cozier, said Breanna Ramsey, a parent of two children, who lives at Regency Park.
Many of the parents at Regency Park with children that attend Carl Cozier are against the idea of eliminating the bus route, said Karla Anderson, a parent from Regency Park.
“We gotta have the bus,” said Megan Kycek, whose child attends Carl Cozier. “This is ridiculous.”
Parents are against eliminating the bus route
Anderson said that she loves the new boardwalks and that they were needed for safer access to main roads, but that she does not feel comfortable with her children walking to school.
Stacie Jensen, a parent from Regency Park, said that she is concerned for the safety of the children if they walk to school. There are a lot of questionable people in the woods, she said.
“Who knows if somebody’s not gonna come by and snag them?” Jensen said.
Alysha Vaughn, a fifth grade Carl Cozier student said that she would not want to walk to school everyday. A man hiding in the woods took pictures of her friend as she walked down Fraser Street, Alysha said.
Ramsey and Kycek both agree that walking to school would be good exercise for the kids, but it would not be safe.
It would be different if the kids were in middle school, but elementary school is too young to walk alone to school, the parents said.
A large portion of the apartments in the complex are low-income housing, and the tenants do not have transportation to drive their kids to school in bad weather or if they are worried about their children walking, Jensen said.
“We can’t even get a job if we’re unemployed, without the bus,” Kycek said, explaining that they would have to walk their children to and from school and wouldn’t have time to go to work.
If the bus route is eliminated, a meeting would be held during the fall to talk with parents about the idea of a “walking school bus,” Brown said. A walking school bus is when a large group of students walk together to school.
An arrangement in which parent chaperones walk with the children to increase safety will be set up at the meeting, Brown said.
Anderson said she doesn’t think having parent chaperones would work because everyone has very different schedules.
It might help if the school sent adults to accompany the students to school, Anderson said.
Anderson, Kycek, and Jensen are considering starting a petition for the school board to keep the bus route.
School district determined to make route safe
If the school district can prove a safe walking route, they are not required to provide a bus for students who live within one mile, said Brown.
The school district has not decided whether or not to eliminate the bus route, said Brett Greenwood, business and finance manager for the district.
The district must prove that a safe walking route is provided, including trails and paths through any woods, and making sure that students will not have to cross any roads with double yellow lines.
The school district will do its assessing during the summer, and make a decision at that time, said Greenwood.
The school district’s main purpose is making sure that kids have access to school and are able to arrive on time, said Tanya Rowe, director of communications and community relations for the school district.
The district keeps in mind that students have different situations and schedules, Rowe added.
David Bailey, manager of the school district’s Transportation Department, is in charge of assessing the safety hazards.
Mary Anderson, a parent with a child at Carl Cozier, recently moved from Regency Park, and helped work on the project.
“It’s a great project especially for the people that live in that complex,” she said.
Now people from the complex have safer access to main roads, she said.
Washington State Department of Transportation grant adds to neighborhood
The grant that paid for the additions to Fraser Street is a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation, said Brown, who wrote the grant proposal.
The grant was for $885,560, most of which was for engineering improvements, said Brown.
Construction on the area began in the summer of 2009, and finished in December, said Anthony.
A walking bridge was added down the street, along with bike lanes, streetlights, and a boardwalk system, said Anthony. The boardwalks operate like sidewalks, but are actually supported with steel pipes so that they are suspended over the ground, which is a wetland, said Anthony.
The project cost about $640,000 to complete, said Anthony.
Part of the funds from the grant are allocated to be used for educational programs about safe walking and biking at Carl Cozier, Brown said.
For any questions or concerns, contact the Transportation Department at 360-676-6456.
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