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Parent urges board to shorten walking distances for kindergarten bus stops
Summary
A parent told the board that tiered bus-stop distance rules force young children to walk long distances in dark and wintry conditions and asked the district to reconsider distance thresholds for kindergarteners; district staff recorded contact information and said changes were not available this year.
A Princeton parent told the school board she is concerned that the district's tiered bus-stop distances require very young students to walk as much as eight to 10 minutes in the morning and cross streets in the dark and snow.
"It's 5 minutes on Google and that's for an adult... and when you put those little lehi in there, you're talking 8 to 10 minutes," the parent said, adding that snowbanks and cars make those walks dangerous and that some parents cannot drive children to school because of work obligations. The parent asked the board to consider lowering the distance requirement specifically for kindergarten students.
A child who accompanied the parent described being difficult to see behind high snowbanks: "My mom watched us through the windows, but she couldn't see us... and because the roads were icy, that made me nervous with my 2 little brothers."
Board members thanked the parent, said they had the parent’s contact information and reminded the public that citizen comment is an opportunity to bring issues to the board’s attention. A district staff member told the board the district had already told the parent there was nothing that could be done for the current year; no formal change to transportation policy was made at the meeting.
The parent said she was speaking on behalf of future cohorts of young children even though her own child was switched to tier 2; she asked the board to consider a shorter walking-distance threshold for kindergarteners next year.
