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Child-care center owner urges district to reinstate bus stop after move into Carbondale
Summary
Carol Flushing, owner of Little Step Childcare Center, told the Santa Fe Trail school board that a move into town left school-age children without bus service and raised safety concerns about a 2.5-block walk across Main Street and a busy Casey's parking lot; the board directed staff to collect data before changing pickup policy.
Carol Flushing, who said she runs Little Step Childcare Center in Carbondale, told the board she moved her licensed center this year expecting district bus service to continue and later learned pickups inside city limits would not be provided. "My name is Carol Flushing, and I have been a home provider for 18 years...I run Little Step Childcare Center in Carbondale, Kansas," she said, noting the center is licensed for 47 children and currently expects to have 12 school-age children who would need safe transport to and from school.
Flushing asked the board to distinguish between in-home daycares and commercial childcare centers when setting pickup rules and proposed that an existing route could simply add a stop at the Casey's parking lot. The district's transportation director, Robbie, told the board that the current policy draws the line at city limits and that reopening pickups to centers could require changes to routing and additional small buses. "I can get the same bus to go by there, but it would be a different one if I put it," Robbie said during the discussion. Board members said they were sympathetic but cautious about making a midyear policy change and directed staff to collect data on licensed daycares, student counts and routing before any decision. "If you're not gonna make a motion on it, then I would say the policy stands, which is city limits," a board member said, and the board agreed to review data at a future meeting.
The exchange included specific operational details the board asked staff to gather: count and locations of licensed daycares across the district, how many school-age children are enrolled at each, current bus loads on affected routes, and whether existing routes already pass by the center. The owner said the center currently has four children who would ride morning buses and eight in the evening, with six additional kindergarten-aged children expected next year. The board did not alter policy at the meeting; instead members asked transportation staff to return with numbers and routing options for a later agenda.
