Losing sleep over cuts: Dropped routes means added time on bus for some
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| Leah Fennell and Given Raven walk up their driveway as the driver checks his bus at the end of the route after school recently. Leah, Given, and Leah’s stepbrother are the first to be picked up in the morning and the last to be dropped off in the afternoon – a result of the elimination of five bus routes as a cost-saving measure in the Sterling school district. (Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@svnmail.com) |
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STERLING – It’s 5:30 a.m., the hour that Leah Fennell, 14; brother, Given Raven, 11; and her stepbrother, Ian Potocnik, 17, must wake up to catch the bus to Sterling High School, about 10 miles away.
The trio boards the bus a little before 6:30 a.m. to begin the hourlong journey to school. Leah and her brothers are the first to be picked up on the route.
Because of drastic reductions in state transportation funding, Sterling Public Schools eliminated four regular education bus routes and one special education route this year.
The state owes the school district $500,000 in transportation reimbursements for fiscal year 2009-10, Assistant to the Superintendent Tim Schwingle has said.
Last fiscal year, the district should have received $872,000 in state transportation funds. Schwingle budgeted for $670,000 this year.
The route consolidation will save $175,000.
But fewer routes means earlier wake-up calls – and longer bus rides – for many families, including the Fennells.
“The biggest concern is the amount of time they are spending on the bus, especially since the bus is so noisy that they can’t get anything done,” mom Risha Fennell said.
“Last year, when it was just my [eldest] son on the bus, he was the first pickup but he was also the first drop-off.”
“Now, he is the last drop-off.”
Some special education students are being bused to the high school as early as 6:05 a.m.
Sterling Schools policy calls for making a “reasonable effort to limit one-way transportation time for students in grades K-5 to 60 minutes. Such transportation should not exceed 70 minutes if at all possible.”
For grades six through 12, transportation time should not exceed 75 minutes, the policy states.
For Risha, the extra time her children are spending on the bus is time that could be better used elsewhere.
“They seem to be spending more than 2 hours daily on the bus to and from less than 10 miles from home,” she said. “Ian is leaving 15 minutes earlier than he did last year, and he is getting home 40 minutes later.”
Raven, 11, uses that time productively, though. The Challand Middle School sixth-grader occasionally succeeds in getting some reading done in the mornings, he said.
Leah said she wishes she could spend that extra time in the morning sleeping, but she’s afraid of missing her stop.
She and Potocnik arrive at Sterling High around 7:30 a.m., enough time for students who qualify for free or reduced meals to eat breakfast. Classes begin at 8.
During lunch, Leah makes sure she eats enough to have energy to make it through the rest of the afternoon.
The school day ends at 3 p.m., and the Fennell children get home around 4 p.m.
They are the last off the bus.
To get enough sleep on school nights, bedtime is 8:30 p.m.
Unless the state’s financial situation improves, such early pickups may be here to stay.
The money still owed this fiscal year likely won’t be paid until July 2012 at the earliest, Schwingle has said.
