KATY, TX (KTRK) — Parents throughout our area are getting ready for their children to head back to school, but those in Katy Independent School District are not just worried about school supplies. Some say they are also worried about getting their kids to school.
According to parents, changes in the bus routes in Katy leave children walking down busy roads with no sidewalks to and from school every day.
Why can’t these parents find a way to get their kids to school themselves?
Unfortunatley today in most households both parents work and there are many single parents. Having children walk down Kingsland is unsafe as this is a highly traffic area. Most families do the best they can and it helps some not to have to worry if there child made it to school.
For me it’s not getting them there, but picking them up – I have a full time job and live in a community with no sidewalks. Add into the mix the nearby high school, and I worry about my 8 and 10 year old walking home on the street when there are teens driving like a bat out of hell down the street.
I will do what’s necessary to keep my kids safe, but KISD’s calculation method is ridiculous.
My kids can’t travel through the air over and around yards, bayous, and busy streets “as the crow flies” – if they could, I’d let them fly to school.
As far as fiscally responsible decisions, I believe the school board struck a good balance when weighing community desires, student safety, and cutting the budget. However, district administrators have once again failed in their responsibility to this community. They did not prepare the community adequately for the upcoming bus changes, and did not act in the students’ best interest when plotting the new bus routes. Our administration has a problem – either they are completely incompetent, or they have purposely created drama to subvert the wishes of the school board. Neither of the choices reflects well on our Superintendent.
Darcy, I think you’re pretty close in your analysis on this one… It will be a good test to see if someone’s paying attention…
Everyone is an expert in what the school district does, whether wrong or right. Someone is going to be upset no matter what they do and it is the whiners that speak the loudest. I guess its time parents begin car pooling and getting to know their neighbors a little better and make this work.
I understand that this was a tough decision, but boy am I disappointed. I have a child who turned 5 just last week and is looking forward to starting Kindergarten. Our house is now ineligible for bus service though my across the street neighbor is eligible. There are only a few elementary-aged children in my small section, and they are all in 5th grade and all ride bikes (as they should, and as my child hopefully will in a few years). For now, we will walk right past the school bus stop on our way to school each day. She is a bit too little for the walk every morning in the heat, but we’ll give it a go. The most troubling part of our only possible route involves walking out into the street for a bit (since we cannot walk over the flowered garden bed/island entrance to another development) and then crossing a 4-lane road controlled only by stop signs.
My humble opinion, they should have x’d or included entire neighborhoods. How do you explain that the house across the street takes the bus but you don’t?
If the parent of an elementary student leaves before their kid, they are endangering them themselves, for parents who leave after their kids, they should be able to take them. I’m sorry if this is inconvenient, but I’m sick of some of these parents wanting the school district to take all the burden off their shoulders. Either take some of the responsibility for raising your own kids or quit breeding them.
Most the older students are as capable of walking to school as they were 30 years ago, they’re just too lazy.
If you’re too lazy to take your kids, or they’re to lazy to walk, try carpooling.
It’s not always a matter of laziness – some families have BOTH parents working. Believe me, if I could be a stay at home mother, I would, and it would not be an issue. But for those of us who work, well, ………
Simple solution would be to offer pay as you go bus service, which many other states do offer. It takes away the burden from the district, it offers this service to folks who really could benefit from it (they may have many other children, unsafe walking conditions, fear of certain bad elements in neighborhoods, etc.), and it pays for itself.
Just my two cents.
When the board discussed it in May, I was under the assumption that they would figure out which routes to cut based on the distance a house is from the school if you travel by a sidewalk or road. I didn’t ever think the school district would find it acceptable for a student to jump over a drainage ditch to get to school.
I think parents are upset because nobody expected the “as the crow flies” method to be used in determining bus eligibility. For many (most?) people who now find themselves ineligible for bus transportation, the actual walking distance is considerably more than the 1/2 or 1 mile guideline. For me, the 1/2 mile to my daughters elementary school has us walking out our backyard, through a wide drainage ditch/swamp (“Beware of alligators and poisonous snakes.”), up into another neighborhood, and down a street on which at least 5 houses are currently under construction so the road and sidewalks are often blocked by construction trucks and equipment. Actually walking on paths with bridges that go over the swamp increases the distance to 1.2 miles. At least my situation doesn’t involve crossing heavily trafficked roads, but I fear for those who do, especially during the morning rush hour. A greater annoyance than getting my child to school in the morning is getting her home in the afternoon. I will plan to walk to school to meet her and walk her home. And hopefully we’ll meet others in our neighborhood so we can have groups of kids together. But there will be times due to our schedule, the weather, or other situations where I will have to drive to pick her up. It is my understanding that our elementary school sent home notices to parents several times a month last year encouraging bus ridership because the number of cars pulling in and out of the school created traffic problems and a dangerous situation for kids leaving the school. Also, getting through the pick-up line would typically take an hour. I will do what I have to do to get my child to and from school safely, but if I start getting notes asking for fewer cars at pickup time, I will forward a copy of it to every member of the school board and to the transportation director every time it happens.
“As the Crows Fly” has the students from the Cimarron neighborhood crossing the bayou coming out on Kingsland. They will then have to cross over Kingsland as Kingsland has no sidewalks (heading East). I personally have forbid my kids from going in the bayou, now the district has them crossing through it. In my opinion very unsafe. I would prefer the district to make one stop at the entrance of the neighbor and pick all kids up there. This way at least kids are cutting through the bayou and over fences.
I have done all that I can do to protest this except for going to the Principal of my school. My child turned 5 two weeks ago and will be entering Kindergarten. The method that they used to calculate distance puts my house at .495 miles away. My neighbor across the street is .51. His fifth grader will ride the bus that will stop 4 houses down from mine, and my just-turned-five-year-old Kindergartener will walk the .9 miles to and from school, across the 4 lanes of traffic on Peek, and in the street for the small part of our walk that has no sidewalk and has an obstacle.
How does this make sense? I know that someone must get cut off, and I am happy that my neighbor’s child can get to school safely, it just makes for an interesting discussion when en route to school, you actually PASS the bus stop.
There was no consideration for age, or actual walking distance. The only good news – - your child can be transported to and from a grandparents’ home as long as it is zoned to your school and eligible for bus service. I think that I may have to make a neighbor an honorary grandparent. That would solve everything.
My house is probably .48 miles from the school entrance. But there is no way to walk there as you can not cross the mason creek and there is no gate at the back of the school to get in. So my 5 year old will now have to walk 1 mile along Fry road. Isn’t crossing the bridge across a creek a hazardous condition? I dont think KISD looked at anything other than straight distance to the property address. For all of you who ask me to take care of my kids, I pay more taxes than lot of people here and if others get to ride on bus , my kid should also have an option to ride on the bus. Otherwise stop the bus service completely so everyone has to go through the same pain.
Great job our politicians and Rick Perry in Austin. While they get their five figure pensions, my kids have to walk a mile in sun and rain and cold. Great job!!!
Have you call called the Parent Advocate? I know that it’s probably a complete and total waste of time, but having a voice may do some good. I’m happy to know the names of the people on the school board so that during election time I can vote for change. And I will vote. And so will my neighbors.
Yes, I know that it’s a thankless job – - but I am considering running next year to represent families with current students who are effected by these haphazard decisions. I can’t do a worse job that those currently holding positions. The problem I have is not the decision, it’s the fact that parents were deliberately misled to avoid the opposition that the board would have faced. There should have been full disclosure. As the crow flies in an area with bayous and major traffic is not safe. Period.