Cobb could eliminate 11,000 school bus stops

By Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Some Cobb County school students may be asked to strap on their walking shoes to help the school system through some tough economic times.

The Cobb County school board is to consider a plan to eliminate about 11,000 of the county’s 50,000 school bus stops, a step that could save the school system about $1 million.

Students who now have short walks to catch their school bus could be asked to trek farther, possibly up to a half of a mile, said Jay Dillon, the school system’s spokesman.

Some parents are upset and say the proposed change will only create new safety concerns.

“Neighborhoods with no sidewalks and hundreds of houses now have one stop for 60-plus elementary-aged children,” said Teisha Moseley, an East Cobb mother of two elementary students. Her neighborhood, Westchester subdivision, will have two bus stops under the plan, down from 10, Moseley said.

“I am just blown away by this,” said Kristin White, who lives in East Cobb’s Riverhill subdivision. She said, unless the plan changes, she and her children will have to walk a quarter of a mile, sometimes in the dark, on streets that have no sidewalks, but plenty of early morning traffic.

Dillon said that, with a projected $58 million revenue shortfall, the school system had to look for potential savings in transportation costs.

Officials considered, but rejected an alternative that would have limited bus service to elementary school students who live a mile or more from school and to middle and high school students who are 1.5 miles or more from their schools, he said.

“That would have eliminated transportation for potentially thousands of students,” Dillon said. “Nobody wanted to reduce service to that extent.”

Currently, the system provides bus service to about 70,000 students who live a half-mile or more from an elementary school and a mile or more from their middle and high schools, he said.

School officials have been talking about the possibility of fewer bus stops since January and hope to implement the plan when school starts in August, Dillon said.

“It saves a lot of gas and increases the efficiency of our transportation routes,” he said.