Generations of Beaconites might object to this big crack in the budget proposal - the consideration of expanding the number of kids who can ride the bus to school by reducing the mile-based cut-off radius that excludes kids who live too close to school. So many Beaconites had to walk to school in slush and rain and bad weather, up and down hills to and from school, because of the 1.5 mile radius restriction that cut off all kids from riding the bus if they lived within that radius.

When some kids asked their school principals about it, some long-time principals who grew up in Beacon responded to the tune of: “We all had to walk! That’s just the way it is!” One student attended a Public Comment session at a Board of Education Meeting last year in 2022 to ask the Board to consider offering busing for all, and to ditch the radius. The response from the Board and Superintendent was positive. Dr. Landahl stated that they had been working on such a proposal for a future budget meeting. 2023-2024 seems to be the one!

In this year’s school budget 2023-2024 budget, the Board of Education is asking taxpayers to vote to reduce the limiting radius by .5 miles, to reduce the radius by a little bit. During his online budget presentation to the community, Dr. Landahul explained that expanding the bus routes has a limited impact on the budget, as buses are not full: “Some of the buses are running and they are not full of students,” he said during this year’s budget presentation.

The impetus for this expansion is to include kids who live in housing complexes, meaning lower income housing. Said Dr. Landahl during his 2023-2024 budget presentation: “There is a plan for this. We are trying to target areas where kids are having a hard time getting to school. Some of the housing developments, we are trying to get kids to school to increase attendance and do better in school overall.”

Dr. Landahl stated that the most impact this would have would be on kids going to the Middle School and High School. “We hope this helps with on-time-ness,"

The Reality Of Getting To School

Anyone who needs to get children to school knows a few things. Namely, that all parents need help getting their kids to school. Any mile radius restriction within the City of Beacon has unclear justification.

For instance:

There may be more than one child in the home, thereby making driving to school during a pelting cold rain difficult. The High School and Middle School start earlier than the Elementary school. While there is a growing movement to start school later in order to let kids get more sleep, this hasn’t happened in Beacon yet. If a parent or caregiver has a child in elementary school, and their older child needs to get to school during a bad or cold weather day, driving them can be difficult or impossible. Not all households have 2 parents living in them. Single parents are limited as to when they can drive.
Parents who do not own cars cannot drive their kids anywhere. For parents who rent apartments on Main Street for instance, and have no cars, they need to sometimes walk their kids to South Avenue or Sargent, while another child is in Rombout Middle School or the High School. A choice must be made as to which child gets walked to school by the parent.
Children who live within the 1.5 mile radius, which may now be a 1 mile radius, still need to walk to school during hail, rain, and other sour weather conditions. Sometimes this includes hills to get to school, and sometimes Verplanck, which everyone knows has narrow sidewalks, which in the winter, when iced over, are frightening.

Busing Issues Do Exist

For those kids who do ride the bus, there are at least three issues:

The bus routes can be long. Getting home could take a child 1 hour on the bus. While driving could take 15 minutes (if you don’t include playing-at-the-playground time). Each situation is different for parents who have different schedules. One hour could be a blessing for a parent who needs the extra time. But a hardship on the child.
Issues with bus drivers. There have been years long complaints at Board of Education meetings about some bus drivers and the handling of children on the routes.
Small children and buses is a delicate situation. For instance, this blogger had her child on a bus. He was eager to ride. But when he fell asleep on the bus (nap time for a 4 year old) and slid off his seat onto the floor during a stop, he was reluctant to get back onto the bus. We remedied with having the bus driver buckle him in and having plenty of KitKats in his backpack to keep him happy.

While more children may be signed up to take the bus as a result of this radius reduction, the district will need to deal with what really happens on bus routes. From the bus drivers, bus monitors, and school staff who are in charge of seeing the children onto the bus. And what to do if a child does not want to get onto the bus.

High School students may have minds of their own on how they to get to and from school.