Due to budget cuts, USD 489 has issued a new transportation policy this year that has affected students and staff.

Director of bus transportation Russ Henningsen said the new policy states that every student within 2.5 mile radius of their school will not be picked up by bus and that they must find their own way to school. Busses went from picking up about 1000 students last year to picking up about 300 students this year The number of routes dropped from 12 bus routes to eight.

“I think that if a kid’s parents go to work early in the morning and live over 2.5 miles and their parents can’t take them, they should be able to ride the bus,” sophomore Celina Rogers said.

This policy is causing many students to have to walk to school or find other rides, making transportation harder on the students and they have to take more responsibility.

“I have to wake up earlier to drop off my younger cousins,” junior Diana Rodriguez said.

Not only does this new policy affect bus kids, it affects other students as well. The teacher parking lot becomes full of parents picking up their children who can’t ride the bus, and it takes a lot longer this year compared to last year for the teacher parking lot to clear out.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Henningsen said. “This is a common policy across the state.”

16jschaffer@usd489.com