KINGWOOD — The Preston County Board of Education has heard several complaints over the past several months about changes to bus routes but made few alterations.
Monday, though, it voted 5-0 to restore a route on Deaker Road, citing fears about student safety.
Parent Eric Hillery addressed the board in December about the route change. He said the bus previously traveled further down the road, but the route was shortened when a portion of the road slipped. The DOH has since repaired the road.
But board Transportation Coordinator Jason Lenhart said he was told by the previous coordinator the route would not be restored.
Hillery said students must walk 10 minutes on an unlit, unpaved road without sidewalks, with no houses along the way, to the bus stop. “One of the children was nearly abducted this morning,” he told the board.
Lenhart said that was referred to the sheriff, who said a deputy may be placed on the road mornings.
Part of the question is whether there is a viable place for the bus to turn around, if it resumes the old route, other than by going partially onto a bridge. Hillery and other parents said there is a driveway where the bus can turn.
“It concerns me, one, if we go across the bridge and the bridge falls in and something happens to a busload of kids,” BOE President Jack Keim said. “Two, if we’ve got kids walking up there and something happens to one of those kids, what kind of excuse can I give to a mother or father?”
Board Members Bruce Huggins and Jeff Zigray walked the road, looked at the bridge and rode the bus over the road, accompanying Lenhart.
“The issue honestly is it is desolate,” Huggins said.
“It’s pretty dark in that section. There are no houses in that area, even looking through the woods. I would be concerned with picking them up there,” Zigray said.
Huggins said he isn’t an engineer, but he was concerned by what he saw of the bridge’s condition underneath.
He and Zigray made the motion to resume the old bus route, provided the bus does not have to go onto the bridge to turn. If it does, Keim said, the matter will be revisited.
“That issue, to a certain extent, exists everywhere in this county,” Superintendent Steve Wotring said. “We just cannot physically get door to door in every home in this county.”
That means students are walking to bus stops all over Preston County, Wotring said.
Zigray said it appeared there’s space enough for the bus to turn in the drive. The new route will begin Monday in part to give the driver time to practice turning.
Hillery said the prior bus driver could turn in the drive. An experienced CDL driver, Hillery offered to help the driver, if needed.
While this route change was caused by road conditions, most of the concerns in busing changes brought to the board stem from a reorganization of routes, the first in more than 20 years.
Susie Sheets and others of the Birds Creek Road community have asked the BOE repeatedly to return the bus to the road to pick up students attending Kingwood schools. Since the change, they have had to be brought to the top of the road to catch a bus.
At earlier meetings, Wotring told Sheets he and the transportation director would review data at the end of the first semester and make a recommendation.
When Sheets questioned them Monday, Wotring said the change in transportation coordinators was unexpected and it will likely be summer before a decision is made on the Birds Creek Road route.
TWEET@ DominionPostWV
