By JENNA RHUDE
Moapa Valley Progress
As the beginning of the school year approached, many local parents found themselves spending many hours on the phone with Clark County School District officials, puzzling through the transportation arrangements for their children. These parents had safety concerns when it came to what was involved in their children catching a ride to school on the bus. The most common problem was that many bus stops had been moved, combined or eliminated all together.
Logandale resident Megan Porter said that in the past week she had spent more than 5 hours on the phone with CCSD officials feeling that she was “getting no where”.
The Porters live near Cram and Yamashita. She was sent notice that her children are now required to walk nearly twenty times as far as before to get to the bus stop. Throughout that distance there are no sidewalks, street lights or an established safe way for her kids to get to the bus stop.
“They would have to walk in the dark across rough desert land that frequently floods when it rains,” Porter said. There are coyotes, snakes and scorpions that are a very real problem. The whole thing just seems unsafe.”
Porter said that one of the most frustrating parts of calling the CCSD Transportation Dept. is the difficulty in getting a real person to talk to.
“Repeatedly I was disconnected,” she said. “I would call back and be disconnected again. I finally told them that I would keep calling back, I have nothing more important today.”
Porter was given a public concern case number and told she would be contacted by an investigator. As of yet, she has received no contact.
In the same area is Blake Monk. His son has been assigned to walk all across open desert to the high school to catch a bus to the middle school.
“If my child makes a straight shot across the desert, it’s almost two miles to the high school,” Monk said. “On top of that there are real hazards. I have to shoo coyotes from my land all the time.”
Monk is also has other safety concerns. “Teenagers driving around while my son is waiting for the bus bothers me,” he said. “I am also worried about bullying at the high school where the kids are supposed to wait for the bus.”
Blake has also made repeated attempts to contact CCSD Transportation with no results.
Erika Moore and her family live in the neighborhood out to the east of the Overton Airport. Her high school student is 4.5 miles from his school, while her middle school student is 3.7 miles away from his school. The high school student is being provided transportation, albeit the stop is almost 2 miles from their front door. But she has been told that her middle school child does not qualify for transportation. Moore said that she was told by CCSD officials that her area was no longer considered a “hazard zone.” When she contested this, she said that she was simply told that “it will not be resolved by the start of school.”
Jenni Adams lives in the Country Lane 2 development in Logandale. Here, there are two housing developments that sit next to each other, separated by fences. But the children are being asked to walk to the bus stop in the Country Lane 1 neighborhood.
“What is being asked of our kids now is not safe,” Adams said. “This would require the children from the other development to walk along the highway to the stop.”
On its face this doesn’t sound like much of a problem; unless you know the neighborhood, Adams said. There is about 4 feet between the brick wall and the highway in the area that young children would be required to walk. And there is no sidewalk.
“One more thing that needs to be pointed out is that the speed limit change is right there,” Adams said.
“People are either going from 45 to 55, or 55 to 45. This is a really bad area for children to walk.”
Adams has also contacted CCSD, multiple times in the last 3 weeks. “Moms from all over our area have been calling with concern,” she said. “We keep in contact with each other, hoping that one of us has received contact or answers from the district.”
Though she has repeatedly requested it, Adams and her neighbors have been unsuccessful in getting a transportation investigator to come and look at the area.
“I hope that by going into this with a good attitude and keeping communications pleasant, we can resolve the situation to make it safe for everyone,” she said.
The Progress contacted CCSD Public Information Specialist David Roddy last week about the matter. Roddy responded with an emailed copy of Clark County School District regulation R3531, the guideline which the district uses to determine if a child qualifies for bussing and where stops are located.
Roddy pointed out that each child living farther than 2 miles from their zoned school qualifies for transportation.
“The parent who is being told that their child does not qualify and they are clearly out of the 2 miles walking distance should contact transportation and let them know of the situation,” Roddy said.
In regards to unsafe walking conditions for the children when walking to the bus stop Roddy stated, “It is beyond school district control how children walk to the bus. It is not CCSD’s responsibility.”
According to R3531, “…the ultimate responsibility of safe student passage to and from school/pickup points rests with the parent or legal guardian. “
Roddy did point out that one local stop had been reinstated. But he was unsure just where that stop was or what the cross streets were.
He said that a transportation investigator had visited the area “looking into the concerns from parents.”
“This is all I have at this time,” Roddy said. “Even I had trouble finding out exactly what happened with regards to this rural area.” said Roddy.
Meanwhile, it is still unclear to local parents just who is responsible for the confusion surrounding the transportation system this year. But they are not about to give up.
“Keep contacting CCSD transportation and working with them until a suitable or acceptable resolution has been made,” Jenni Adams encouraged.
All of the parents interviewed agreed on one thing. They understood that the local bus drivers and the area schools were all doing their best at hearing parent concerns. But with decisions being made by CCSD staffers in Las Vegas, there is little control that local district employees have over what is being done with the bussing situation.
