Bend school bus route changes prompt family concerns

The first week of school is almost over. Aside from the normal new school year jitters, this year was accompanied with major Bend-La Pine bus route changes. Eighty-five percent of the district’s routes were changed or tweaked this year. Many families lost their bus service entirely.

The Smith Family’s youngest child of eight is attending Jewell Elementary in Bend. Their children have all ridden the bus. They thought their 5-year-old, Amy, would be no different.

However, Donovan Smith realized the bus that usually picks up on Parrell Road was cancelled.

He and his wife don’t have typical schedules, making it difficult to drive Amy to school. If she walked alone, she would have a nearly 1- mile journey, potentially on a busy road with little to no sidewalks, dangerously close to oncoming, quick-moving traffic.

The route, along Parrell Road to Rae Road, was suggested by the school district. It was one of a couple of suggestions.

The Smiths said they would never let Amy walk alone. “Not a chance,” Donovan Smith said.

The family is not alone, either. Two new elementary schools in the Bend-La Pine district are partially to blame for the route changes.

“For instance, buses that uses to go to Jewell Elementary now go to (the new) Silver Rail” Elementary, also in southeast Bend, said Denice Blake, director of transportation for the school district.

Blake said a key reason for the changes is because of Bend’s constant growth. She said many areas have new neighborhoods, with new and safe roads and sidewalks for the kids to walk on to get to school.

Regardless of the why, the transportation reassessment has resulted in many more kids living in what’s called the “no-transport zone.” That is an area where buses legally do not have to go, based on proximity to the school.

For elementary school students, that’s a one-mile radius. For middle and high school-aged students, it’s 1.5 miles..

Kindergartener Amy Smith lives .97 of a mile away. She is right on the cusp, and that’s why Blake said a bus used to pick kids in her area up.

Blake also said that no new buses were added to the fleet this year, and that the school district even cut some.

“It’s(measured) property line to property line — the most expedient way to get here by use of roadways and pedestrian facilities,” Blake said.

State law doesn’t take safety factors like sidewalks, crosswalks, speed limits or stop signs into account.

“One wrong move and you get yourself killed out here. I’m not willing to let that happen,” Donovan Smith said.

Amy told NewsChannel 21 that she didn’t think she could walk the route without her mom and dad. The walk took 30 minutes.

A total of 44 percent of students at Jewell Elementary live within the “no-transport zone.”