Austin ISD restores neighborhood bus stops for middle schoolers
AISD parents still fighting new bus changes
Austin ISD has restored neighborhood bus stops for middle schoolers.
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin ISD has restored neighborhood bus stops for middle schoolers.
This comes after announcing secondary students would have to go to community hub bus stops instead of being picked up in their neighborhoods, in an effort to save the district money.
The district says they used savings from closing Paredes Middle School to restore the middle school bus stops. High schoolers will still have community hub bus stops. Elementary students keep their neighborhood stops.
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New Austin ISD bus routes: Details about Bus Stop Finder and hub stops
Austin ISD officials shared details about the recently launched Bus Stop Finder and new hub stops across the district.
Austin ISD parents speak out
What they're saying:
On Thursday, AISD said they added more hub stops after hearing feedback about dangerous travel routes, before adding back the middle school stops on Friday.
The changes will be finalized in the Bus Stop Finder on August 13, just five days before the start of the school year.
Parents say while the change helps with their middle schoolers, for their high schoolers and magnet school students, it's still a headache trying to figure out how they'll get to school.
Ada Drozd's son will be going to Small Middle School, and her daughter will be going to Bowie High School. Her son had his neighborhood bus stop restored, but her daughter's hub bus stop is a fire station that's a 33-minute walk from home.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: AISD parents concerned with new bus system
Austin ISD officials shared details about the recently launched Bus Stop Finder and new hub stops across the district.
"It's already dangerous. We live right off of Highway 71. That's where the fire station is generally, Circle Drive and Highway 71, and my daughter is actually medically fragile," she said. "When you consider that my son's health on a physical level is actually better than my daughter's, and yet because she's 14 instead of 12, she gets to walk over an hour every day. My daughter matters, just like my son matters, their safety matters."
Jeanne Lehman Lopez's children go to Lively Middle School and Akins High School. Because Lively is a magnet school, her kids' bus stops are still at different hubs. Both of her kids would have to walk in areas without sidewalks, and there is a blind bend on the route.
"Between that hub stop and our neighborhood, the big issue for me is, I'm learning that the bus is actually going to go right through our neighborhood before it gets to the high school," Lehman Lopez said.
AISD has suggested that families carpool, but Lehman Lopez says her neighbor's child already carpools with her.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: AISD on Bus Stop Finder, new hub stops
FULL NEWS CONFERENCE: District officials provide update on the changes to bus routes for the upcoming school year.
"I'm already doing that, you know? I can't do that for two schools and two kids. It's so unrealistic. I'm having a hard time with it," she said.
Lehman Lopez also says during a board meeting over the summer, officials said there wouldn't be hazardous routes.
"I'm hoping that maybe they're going to realize this is going to be very harmful. I think I would have to send my son on that two-lane road if we don't get a stop," she said.
Drozd says she doesn't think every family will be able to find accommodations.
"I think [the district] is thinking that we'll all just figure this out, but it's not true. I think more likely kids will miss school. I might pull my kids out or pull my daughter out at least if it is jeopardizing her health, and it's not feasible for our family," Drozd said.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen and previous coverage