School Board to Reconsider Its Decision to Cut Busing

Junior and senior high school students in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District who were facing a long walk to school next year may not get kicked off the bus after all.

The Board of Trustees tonight will reconsider its decision to eliminate busing for secondary students for the 1992-93 school year.

In April, the board voted to eliminate busing for students in grades seven through 12 as part of $3.5 million in proposed budget cuts. Cutting busing would save the district $200,000 annually, said Kim Stallings, assistant superintendent for administrative services.

Last month, about a dozen parents attended a board meeting to protest the decision. Several parents said their children would have to walk through neighborhoods they claimed are the sites of gang activity, as well as cross several busy streets.

“We will see a tremendous number of kids not (able to) make it to school” if busing is eliminated, said parent Susan Lowry.

According to Stallings, the district may be able to make up the cost of secondary transportation by changing some attendance boundaries and eliminating some elementary school bus stops.

“The boundary committee will consider the issue of transportation when they look at changing boundaries,” Stallings said.

Some elementary students, Stallings added, are bused to one school despite being within walking distance of another.

The elementary bus stops that the district will consider eliminating are within recommended walking distance of schools, but had transportation provided for reasons such as lack of sidewalks or crosswalks. In some cases, improvements have been made to those areas, eliminating the need for busing, Stallings said.