Cy-Fair parents want their school buses

Parents in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District react with dismay to cutbacks in school bus service.

“I implore you, please reconsider these routes,” said parent Rachel Gerhardt. “Some are hazardous. My main concern is that my child gets to and from school safely. I don’t want to just hope. I want to know they got there safely.”

Cy-Fair said the state does pay for the buses to continue along routes the state considers dangerous — and they need that money.

“This is a service which we (had) offered for several decades,” said Kelli Durham, an assistant superintended with the Cy-Fair ISD.
“This is a valuable service; however, when you are forced to cut $14.2 million in this year’s budget — we cut $27 million from last year’s budget and $15 million from the prior years due to a lack of state funding.”

The state will continue to cover transportation costs on what are considered dangerous routes, but budget constraints lead to other cuts.

According to school board officials, the board had to make up a budget deficit of more than $14 million because the public wanted services cut instead of losing the 20 percent homestead exemption on property taxes.

I wonder about that. Is it really the case that public sentiment favored keeping that tax cut at all costs, or was it just a sufficiently vocal and motivated minority, plus an easily-cowed board of trustees, that led to this? If it is the latter, that will serve as an object lesson in the importance of organization and paying attention. And, hopefully, the impetus for some candidates who’ll do a better job of doing what the majority wants, not just the sufficiently vocal, to run in the next election.

“(We) respectfully request reinstating bus service or offering an alternative such as bus service for a fee,” said parent Julie Long.

Long said her two elementary-age sons attend Adam Elementary, which is more than a mile from their home.

“Less than 25 percent of the route offers sidewalks,” Long said. “The entire portion between Fallbrook and our neighborhood is pretty dangerous. It’s a two-lane, winding road with no sidewalks whatsoever.”

I note this since the question of sidewalks came up in that previous post. More than a mile is a pretty long distance for an elemetary school student to walk, and without sidewalks, it really is dangerous. Too bad that wasn’t taken into account before.

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7 Responses to Cy-Fair parents want their school buses

  1. Pingback: Twitted by offthekuff

  2. Ken says:

    my (not inside the loop) neighborhood has sidewalks on all its streets, why doesn’t there’s? Oh, yes, it is because they moved to Cy-Fair and that is what they wanted. They wanted their kid to live in that kind of place.

    They do not want to pay taxes to pay for what they demand, but yet probably cry socialism at first chance regarding most things. I feel the pain about not being able to get what you want for your kids, but that ship sailed when they decided that homestead is more important than education.

  3. Peter Wang says:

    This is the price that we and our children pay for suburban design concepts that have utterly ignored pedestrians and bicyclists… they have built infrastructure as cheaply as possible by optimizing for one mode only… private cars and trucks.

    And the damn shame is, it never had to be this way. Other suburbs in other parts of the USA do much better. I was just in Washington State this summer, in the “red” part of the state, Eastern Washington, which voted for McCain/Palin no less, and there was bike/ped infrastructure EVERYWHERE.

    I lay it at the feet of Steve Radack, Jerry Eversole, and their engineering staffs. That’s where the blame belongs.

    I live in Cy-Fair ISD… my son has ridden his bike to elem, middle, and now Langham Creek high school for the last ten years. In every kind of weather. He’s never taken the bus to high school. Never needed to. We live a mile from Langham.

    And he’s a great driver. He’s had 3D situational awareness and real-time risk-assessment burned into his brain since being out on the road at age 12. I am really proud of how he conducts himself. He’s out driving now; I carpooled & bicycled to work today.

    Yeah, we’re a skinny family too. That’s really different from our neighbors.

  4. Mike says:

    The Board is easily cowarded. Years back there was an election that instituted year round schooling. A couple of years later the Board rescinded that election after hearing some complaints. The voters had actually spoken- shouldn’t there have been another election to change back.

  5. Karl says:

    Everyone is not in the same situation. My family happens to be just outside the two mile limit, but if bus service were eliminated I would eventually move. There is no straight line from my house to where they attend school. Walking along the 290 feeder or Cypress N-Houston is not an option. In beating a dead horse, everytime I see the Berry Center, and hear the word deficit, I giggle just a bit.

  6. Ashley says:

    I am a college student conducting a case study about CFISD’s cancellation of bus services.
    If your child is no longer provided bus service and you would like your voice to be heard, please fill out a short anonymous survey here:
    Click Here to take survey
    I will be making recommendations to CFISD based on your responses!

  7. Cy-Rides is a kids transportation service provided for children who live in and attend school within the Cy-Fair Independent School District. We will pick your kids up from a designated location and take them to their destination.

    We offer parents a safe convenient alternative way of transporting your children to school while giving you the peace of mind that they are taken care of. Cy-Rides is a kids transportation service made up of parents residing in Cypress, Texas with children who attend the Cy-Fair Independent School District with the hopes of assisting other parents by providing a safe, convenient and alternative means of transporting your precious jewels to and from school. We service exclusively to all schools in the Cy-Fair Area. For service, please contact us at 281 304-2575 or via email [email protected]

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