Rutherford school board tables plan to eliminate some bus routes
The counsel was proposing that anyone who lived within one mile of most schools would no longer be able to ride a bus.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WSMV) - The Rutherford County Board of Education tabled a plan to eliminate bus routes for students within a mile of most schools during a meeting on Thursday night.
The board had proposed that anyone who lived within one mile of any school – except Title I schools – would have to provide their own transportation to get ahead of the bus driver shortage and to redirect buses to new schools.
Some parents said if the proposal were to become a reality, they wouldn’t have a way to get their kids to school next year. Other parents were upset about students walking through traffic to get to school.
Bus service is something Amy Van Patten never thought she could lose.
“I’m kind of shocked that they’re trying to take them away,” Van Patten said.
Buses shuttling hundreds of students to and from Rutherford County schools would have ended at the start of the 2024-25 school year if the proposal had passed.
“I have an 11-year-old and I have a 6-year-old that go to school across the street,” Van Patten said.
Van Patten is one of those some Rutherford County Board of Education members were targeting with the proposal. Some board members suggested that the district take buses away from families who live less than a mile from their school.
“I’m kind of shocked that they’re taking it away, just because they assume. I mean, how are the kids going to get to school,” Van Patten said. “There are people that can’t get them to school. They rely on the buses.”
The school system said a bus driver shortage was the main reason behind the proposal, and the board members felt they needed to redirect the buses to students at the newly built schools.
“Especially with the streets being as busy as they are, people coming through the neighborhoods,” Van Patten said.
School board members said the change could save the district $750,000 and they’re merely suggesting parents use resources like car-pooling.
“Some parents do need them. The parents that, even if it’s a mile or so away from the school, have to be at work earlier and they need the transportation for their younger children to get to school,” Van Patten said.
The board voted to table the proposal until further notice during Thursday’s meeting.
The proposal would not have affected Title I schools in Rutherford County, but some board members felt the proposal needed more work before it could be put to a vote.
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