Oswego School District 308 Board questions school bus route consolidation plan

If schools re-open in August as currently scheduled, students at two Oswego School District 308 elementary schools may be arriving in a different fashion.

Director of Transportation Dawn Simosky presented the Board of Education with the results of a safety hazard study April 27 intended to determine the best way to consolidate bus routes at Prairie Point Elementary School in the 3600 block of Grove Road, Oswego, and Southbury Elementary School in the 800 block of Preston Lane, Oswego.

The district had asked Ericksson Engineering Associates, LTD. to perform the study in October of 2019, following a request by the board to determine if buses were being used to transport students who resided within walking distance of the two schools.

Based on the study's results, the range of walking students for Prairie Point would be enlarged from its current boundaries to as far away as Paradise Parkway in the Arbor Gate subdivision along Route 71 and all bus routes in the Southbury subdivision would be eliminated.

The charge, if implemented, would affect 150 students at Prairie Point by eliminating three bus routes, and would eliminate three bus routes at Southbury, also affecting 150 students. The remaining students would be assigned to their school's remaining bus routes.

Each school currently has one crossing guard, though the proposed change for Southbury would see an additional guard at the intersection of Southbury Boulevard and Broward Lane. The study also determined that an additional crossing guard for Prairie Point was not needed.

The boundaries were proposed, Simosky explained, because the houses within the new boundaries all fell less than 1.5 miles away from the schools.

Eliminating the routes from the schools would save the district more than $53,000 combined, Simosky said.

According to the study, four criteria are used by the Illinois Department of Transportation and State Superintendent of Education to determine if a student faces serious hazards when walking to school: Walking on a road, walking along a road, crossing a road, and crossing railroad tracks. The study also took into account the ages of students, walking routes to school, the location and amount of sidewalk on the path to the school, and the speed, control and volume of traffic on the roadways.

Board members raised several concerns with the study during Simosky's presentation.

Board member Alison Swanson pointed out that the study times examining road conditions for the two schools were conducted after the school day had begun, and well before it ended, meaning that students were not walking to or from school when the data was compiled.

Another problem, Swanson said, was that the studies were only conducted on days with nice weather, instead of rain or snow.

"We're not doing these when there's three feet of snow on the ground and nobody's shoveling their walk, so our kids are walking in the streets," she said.

While the proposal called for a crossing guard at Southbury and Broward, Board Secretary Ruth Kronor raised the possibility of a guard in the high-traffic area of Colchester Drive and Southbury Boulevard.

"I know parents are going to be very anxious about that particular intersection," Kronor said.

Simosky explained that the layout of the area, along with the other factors judged in the study determined that an additional crossing guard was not needed. However, if the board felt it necessary, another guard could be appointed by the district.

The Oswego School District 308 Board of Education will next meet Monday, May 11.