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Parents not thrilled with end of busing

Now that sidewalks have been installed, Westchase Elementary expects students within 2 miles to walk to school or get a ride.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published May 29, 2005

WESTCHASE - The school district always intended for kids to walk to Westchase Elementary School: It just needed the county to catch up with enough sidewalks.

That day now has come. And parents are none too thrilled.

Principal Joyce Wieland informed families during the last week of classes that, come August, buses no longer would stop in the Fords and part of the Bridges neighborhoods. Instead, crossing guards will help youngsters walking across Gretna Green Drive and Montague Street.

Almost instantly, a group of moms launched an e-mail campaign to notify families that did not have children in the school. They quickly followed with a petition drive, gathering more than 200 signatures in days.

They delivered the document to Wieland and the School Board late last week, along with a clear message that their children won't be walking to school.

"It's not safe for the kids," said organizer Karim Martin, contending that Montague, Gretna Green and Linebaugh Avenue are equally dangerous for youngsters to travel.

If the district does not return the bus route, Martin said, most parents will drive their children to the school on Linebaugh. The already busy thoroughfare has no turn lanes into the campus, she noted, guessing the end result will be a traffic disaster.

Kathleen Morello, who signed the petition, predicted drivers would do "crazy, dangerous things" to navigate the ensuing mess.

"Think about all the Fords (about 400 homes) feeding into that traffic," said Morello, whose daughter Katie will begin kindergarten in the fall. "It's going to be nuts. . . . I'm thinking they would have thought this through. But it doesn't sound like it."

District officials say they have looked hard at the matter, and made a reasoned decision.

Families have enjoyed what officials call a courtesy bus ride since Westchase opened in 1999, but that was solely because the area did not have adequate sidewalks leading to the school.

"Since they built the sidewalk (on Westchase Drive), which the parents have been asking for since the school opened, the hazardous walking conditions were eliminated," district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said.

And it just so happens that the School Board, trying to trim its budget, has instructed its staff to eliminate courtesy bus stops as part of the effort. Children living less than 2 miles from school, with a safe way to get there, can walk or get a ride, board members reasoned.

That isn't to say that the board doesn't understand parents' concerns.

"I drove my children to school, each of them, for 11 years because I didn't feel it was safe for them to walk," chairwoman Candy Olson said.

Empathy does not erase financial reality, though.

"We do not want to put any child at risk," Olson said. "But on the other hand, how much responsibility is the school's, and how much is the parents'?"

She said she was exploring solutions, some of which might come out at upcoming board meetings. They include, most notably, the idea of letting parents pay for transportation where the district otherwise would not provide it.

That concept might prove contentious, though, because families without the money would not have that option.

In the meantime, any parents who think they live outside the 2-mile radius and qualify for a bus ride can call the district safety office at 872-5263 for a ruling, Cobbe said.

- Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at 813 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 28, 2005, 09:57:04]