Column: Parents in District 204 upset with plan to cut school bus transportation for their neighborhoods

Parents who found out they will lose busing for their Metea Valley High School children next year say it is not safe for these students to walk along busy Eola Road in Aurora. (Denise Crosby / The Beacon-News)
With heavy traffic whizzing past them early Thursday morning, 30 or so parents stood along busy Eola Road outside Metea Valley High School in Aurora to show their displeasure with District 204′s decision to take away busing for their neighborhoods beginning next school year that has been in place since the school was built in 2009.
Kids safety is not negotiable. Bring back our buses. Don’t gamble with kids safety. These were a few of the messages written on poster-size signs these Indian Prairie parents waved as they formed a line along the east side of this early morning jam-packed intersection. There, a red light and crosswalk gives their children access to the high school from Stonebridge and other subdivisions. But that’s not enough, they insist, to keep their children safe.
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Illinois Department of Transportation requirements, as most of us know, require school districts to only provide busing for students who live more than 1.5 miles from a school, unless the walking route constitutes a serious hazard due to vehicular traffic or rail crossings.
These parents pose a fair question when they ask, if busy Eola, which has become a growing concern to residents who live in its vicinity, especially in the wake of recent fatal accidents, does not fall into that category, then what does?
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Even on this brisk but sunny spring morning, it was obvious as cars and trucks whizzed past in a stream of traffic, that walking along this road, which has no sidewalks and is littered with broken glass and even a gaping infrastructure hole, is not an ideal pathway for kids.
District 204 parents hold signs along busy Eola Road Thursday morning to show their concerns that busing will be taken away from students in their nearby neighborhoods who go to Metea Valley High School in Aurora. (Denise Crosby / HANDOUT)
Now, imagine what it would be like in the winter, when students are making their way in the dark, navigating ice and snow that makes Eola itself more dangerous for vehicles.
Busing has become so controversial because it seems District 204 is playing catch-up. Because of the comprehensive nature of IDOT assessments, the district did not routinely analyze busing eligibility across the district, and some neighborhoods are only now getting assessed.
According to the district, this new assessment is finding that some areas do not constitute a “serious safety hazard.” That was pointed out several weeks ago in an email from Ron Johnson, director of support operations for District 204, when I wrote a column about another neighborhood – south on Eola – that lost busing to Fischer Middle School on Long Grove Drive following school boundary changes.
Taking away a service that’s been around for so long can’t help but roil residents, says Parneet Arora, who has sons at Metea and Granger Middle School and who, like many of her neighbors in Stonebridge and eight surrounding subdivisions, depends on busing for her children because both she and her husband have busy careers.
“Now we will have to go to work and worry about them making it to and from school safely each day,” Arora said. “There is enough guns, violence, drugs already in schools. And they are just adding to the list for no reason.”
Sushil Kumar is also upset this decision was made without consulting those most impacted.
“After 20 years, why now? What happened?” he asked. “There is no good explanation. The road is so much busier now. There is not enough parking at the school. There are not enough sidewalks.
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“These kids leave for school at 6:30 in the morning,” Kumar said, adding that inclement weather, especially in winter, could create a perfect storm.
“We talk to the board about that,” he told me, “and they just ignore that.”
That might be harder to do come Monday.
In addition to a second planned demonstration along Eola Road Friday morning, parents plan to show up early for the 7 p.m. May 1 school board meeting at 780 Shoreline Drive to quietly demonstrate outside before taking their voices inside for public comment.
Hiren Mehta, for example, wants to know why district officials are not giving “judgment points” on safety to IDOT rules on busing, as he insists Eola “meets all definitions” for dangerous conditions, including high volumes of traffic and excessive traffic accidents.
And why, Mehta asked, “is it now safe for them to walk” along Eola?
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That feeling was mirrored by about everyone I spoke with, including Pushpa Kanak, who finds it hard to imagine her two children walking to school, hauling band instruments and book bags, while navigating along Eola.
She and others also worry about how kids tend to pay more more attention to their phones than to traffic. And they expressed concerns about sons and daughters being tempted to cross this busy road before the traffic light in an attempt to cover ground more quickly.
“I am super angry,” said Pruthva Shah, the mother of two young children who pointed to bus service as one reason her family moved to this community.
“We liked the fact we would not have to worry about safety at least on these roads. All of a sudden we hear the service is discontinued … and now will have to adjust schedules” around drop-off and pick-up times.
Shah and others say they also have an issue with the way things were rolled out. Caught by surprise – as Fischer parents claim to have been last year – they want better answers than what they have received so far.
“Look at the traffic right now,” said Kumar, whose voice was getting drowned out by a surge of trucks. “Who will be responsible for an accident here?”
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dcrosby@tribpub.com