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SYRACUSE - Every school corporation has its transportation policies.
Sometimes when a family moves or changes its babysitter, the last item they might consider is the change in busing of their children to and from school.
Wawasee Community School Corp.'s busing policies came into question recently when a parent expressed her concern that her children wouldn't be picked up by the school bus any longer after the family changed the children's babysitter, who lives two-tenths of a mile from the last babysitter. The new babysitter is eight-tenths of a mile from the school. If her children have to walk to school, the mother said, she is concerned about their safety because they would have to cross Ind. 13.
According to Wawasee Schools' transportation policy, provided by Superintendent Dr. Mark Stock Thursday, the board has established policies concerning transportation and intends to have them "in force insofar as extenuating circumstances, over which they have no control, will permit." From time to time, adjustments may have to be made based on enrollment fluctuation, economic conditions, bus driver contracts, bus facilities and other items.
Any student living outside town limits will be transported to the school in their attendance district. Buses will not operate on roads other than those maintained by the county or state highway department, and then only if necessary provisions are made for proper turnaround areas.
"It is reasonable to expect students to walk one mile or less to an established bus center from which they will be provided bus transportation," according to the policy. Since they are on a half-day schedule, kindergarten students will be transported only one way.
Stock said that at one time, all schools were town schools. And, he said, the boundaries of the town limits are not squared off; rather, they are odd configurations. Inside those limits, students walk or find other means of transportation to school.
"We wouldn't be able to afford to pick up every student" in the town limits, Stock said. To do that, he said, they'd have to add more drivers and buy more buses, and the cost would be too much for the school corporation to bear. It is more common nowadays, he said, for students to walk to school. "It's always an issue of where the boundary is."
The school corporation does attempt to address extenuating circumstances. One such case is in North Webster. North Webster annexed the new North Webster Elementary School, putting the school inside the town limits. However, there are no walkways for children who live inside the town limits to walk to the school unless they walk through ditches or along busy county roads. There is no shoulder, no stop lights or berms either, just road and grass. The speed limit is also higher. So far, Stock said, the town has no plans to put in walkways for the route to the school.
All of the school communities have state highways running through them, he said, with a significant number of students who have to cross those roadways. Typically, each town provides some kind of crossing guard for the state highways, but where the new North Webster Elementary School is, "there's no way to do that."
To address that issue, Stock said, the school does have a handful of students who normally would walk, but because the walk is "not as safe" as it would be "in a controlled environment," they are picked up. The bus driver who picks up these students finishes her regular route early so she can pick them up, Stock said.
Day care students are also picked up, he said. "Yes, we do stop for the day care and transport them over," but, he said, that happens in all the Wawasee communities, not just North Webster.
Transportation of handicapped children also is addressed in the board's policy.
The policy states: "Parents of children who require transportation to educational centers outside of the Wawasee Community School Corp. will either receive reimbursement for expenses as approved by the Board of School Trustees or will have their children transported via the Wawasee transportation system. In lieu of payments to parents, the board reserves the right to make payments directly to the center, if it provides the transportation, or to an approved carrier other than parents."
Once or twice every year, Stock said, someone expresses a concern regarding busing. "There's safety concerns for every school," he said, and the school corporation does their best to deal with them.
