Schools’ cuts to bus routes raise safety concerns

GRANITE FALLS — The tree-lined county road to Riley McFall’s house is long. On early winter mornings, stretches are pitch black.

There are no shoulders or fog lines and a steep embankment drops off to the Pilchuck River on one side.

Come September, Riley, who will be an eighth-grader next year, and other Granite Falls students will make the mile-long trek from their homes on Scherrer Road to reach their new bus stop.

It’s part of a school district plan to save $42,000 in transportation costs.

More districts are having to make transportation cuts. Several local school districts, such as Edmonds, Lake Stevens and Stanwood, have reduced routes to cut expenses in recent years.

In April, the Everett School Board approved $3.7 million budget reduction plan. It cuts $423,000 in transportation by revising school bus routes.

Last year, the Edmonds School District stopped bus rides for most students within a mile of their schools. State funding covers about 60 percent of what the district pays to take students to and from school, and the state only pays to bus students whose stop is more than a mile from school as the crow flies.

And some parents object. Alice McFall said the Granite Falls road is too dangerous for her son Riley and other students to walk in the dark. Moreover, there are bears, cougars and a pack of feral dogs in the area, McFall said.

“The $42,000 (savings) is not worth a life,” she said.

Maggie Boyd, who also has a son, Devin, at Granite Falls Middle School, said it is “a scary, scary road.”

The Granite Falls School District recently streamlined transportation routes for the 2010-11 school year. The move is one of many money-saving measures the district has made to make up for a $1 million deficit resulting from state funding cuts, declining enrollment, contract obligations and a new requirement to increase the district’s fund balance.

The district also stands to lose 10 teaching positions, an administrative post and about a dozen other school-related jobs.

Even so, parents say they can’t help but worry about how the shortened routes affect their children.

“We know this a huge change for some of our parents and we understand their frustration,” said Kathy Grant, a school district spokeswoman. “This has been hard for everyone. It’s all programs, all services, the staff declines. There were some very hard decisions.”

In Granite Falls, parents received a May 24 letter from Superintendent Karen Koschak outlining the route changes that mean more students will be walking to school or to the main roads for pick-up.

District officials said they wanted to give parents an early warning to prepare for the fall. They are encouraging students to walk in groups or, when possible, have an adult walk with them.

Boyd said she understands the financial bind the district faces, but believes the route changes will put children in danger.

She said it would make sense to her to have a district bus pick them up on the road by the students’ homes in the morning and to drop them off at the bottom of the hill on Robe Menzel Road in the afternoon.

“I have no problem with him walking. Give me a sidewalk and he can walk two miles,” Boyd said. “It’s not the distance; it’s the darkness.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.