Story Published:
Sep 3, 2008 at 5:20 PM CST
Story Updated:
Sep 4, 2008 at 7:02 PM CST
SPRINGFIELD -- Stacey Bennett says 1.46 miles separates her home from Pleasant View Elementary/Middle School, which is her children's school. That’s not enough distance under normal circumstances to qualify them for the district’s free bus service. Bennett thinks, however, that’s plenty of space to present a number of dangers if she were to allow her children to walk.
Bennett thought she would be hustling her kids onto the school bus this year. Instead, she herds them into her car every morning.
"Now they expect my kids to walk 1.5 miles to school,” she said.
In the Springfield School District, students who live less than a mile and a half from the building don't receive free bus transportation. But the district does make exceptions for those who have to cross a designated “barrier street.”
"To the school handbook, if a road is deemed unsafe, they have to provide bus transportation,” said Bennett.
District policy defines a barrier street as one “with a high traffic volume, speed and/or width" or one “with a speed limit of 45 mph or more."
Several of the Greene County farm roads north of Springfield along the children's walking route have that designation, including a portion of the road on which they live Farm Road 88. As for that road, the district said in a statement on Wednesday, "We are still working to try and clarify whether that part of Farm Road 88 is or is not a barrier street."
Highway AA also has that barrier designation, except for the stretch that students have to cross to get to Pleasant View. That's where the speed limit has been lowered from 45mph to 40mph.
"Like that five miles per hour is going to keep my kids from getting hit,” said Bennett. “There's nothing. There's no reduced speed. There's no flashing light, nothing that says school zone ahead."
That’s why Bennett says she insists on this new morning routine until something changes.
"I want them to realize that it's unsafe,” she said.
A committee formed by the city of Springfield makes the recommendations for the school district’s barrier streets and school zones, even the ones outside the city limits. A representative for the city said, on one hand, there is a level of responsibility that parents who live less than a mile and a half from their child's school need to assume when it comes to getting their kids to school safely. On the other hand, when given this particular scenario, he also took a look at the map and said, as far as he sees it, this family should be considered for a barrier street busing exemption.
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Thursday, Sep 18 at 1:47 PM Brian wrote ...
I agree it is wrong in what the Springfield School District does with the busing. Other school districts in the area provide transportation for everyone. They are just cheep and wont put the money with what they say with their mouth. Do you really care about kids safety. I spoke to the man in charge last year and he assured me that my students would ride the bus. But who knows where he is and the new person doesn't seem to really have any transportation experience.