Santa Rosa got school buses running on time, but some worry they put kids at risk to do it

Just over a week after school started back up in Santa Rosa County, some parents are still raising concerns over the bus stop and route changes that have taken place county-wide.

Still, district officials say the changes have helped the district get students to school on time more frequently while also helping mitigate a bus driver shortage.

At the school board's first meeting since the start of classes for the 2022-2023 school year, district officials and staff reflected on the changes.

"That was the whole point, to make sure kids are in school — they're not missing instructional time," Superintendent Karen Barber said at the board's meeting Thursday morning. "When anyone is late to a meeting, or to class, it's stressful. And that's not the way we want our students to start the day."

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Travis Fulton, the district's purchasing director and contracts administrator, said following the coronavirus pandemic, the on-time rate for students taking the buses was about 75%. But he said this year, "we have not fallen below 95% since we started school."

Still, several sets of parents said they were concerned for the safety of children traveling to and from the new stops.

The new busing plan called for the elimination of over 20 routes and 3,500 stops, about half of the existing stops. The changes were estimated to create $2 million in annual savings for the school district, push the on-time rate closer to 95% and align the number of bus routes more closely with the number of bus drivers.

Up until 2009, virtually all bus routes were door-to-door. Since then, the range has been door-to-door for kindergarteners, 400 feet for first through fifth grade students and 1,000 feet — or roughly one-fifth of a mile — for sixth graders through high school seniors.

Now, kindergarteners through fifth graders can be assigned a bus stop up to a half-mile away, and all sixth grade through 12th graders can be up to a mile away.

The reasoning behind the change is bus drivers spent a great deal of time crisscrossing the same neighborhood making numerous stops. District officials' new approach is to make fewer stops in a few centralized spots within neighborhoods.

According to Fulton, the district mailed out postcards with the updated busing information in July, and between July and the start of school, staff serviced about 300 calls and concerns from county residents regarding the changes.

"Not only my daughter, but our neighbor's two kids down the street from us and another kid are having to walk over a half mile to get back to the house from their bus stop. And the response I essentially got (from the district) was, 'Well, that's the parents' responsibility,'" said Santa Rosa County parent Joshua Bollinger, adding he feels the safety of children should be the top priority.

Other parents echoed Bollinger's sentiment.

"That's my main concern, is safety of the children. Not only my children, but everybody else's children, too," said parent Brandy Locke.

Fulton was candid in the meeting, noting the change to routes and stops "hasn't been what everybody has wanted."

He said the district has 179 routes with only 134 drivers.

"We've had to make adjustments to our routines, but the end result is that our kids are in class on-time," Barber said.

Bollinger remained steadfast that there had to be a better compromise.

"We're not happy with (the changes). I understand there's a shortage, but there's got to be something else we can do. Either earlier start times, not for the school, (but for) the bus routes, where we help the kids get in," Bollinger said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Santa Rosa County cut bus stops in half for 2022-2023 school year