OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Some families in the Blue Valley Schools district are now left wondering how they'll get their kids to school.
On Monday night, the Blue Valley Schools Board of Education voted to cut its payrider school bus transportation program for more than 700 middle and high school students.
"Now we're left with no options of getting my son to school and I'm extremely concerned," said Sally Jercha, a Blue Valley mother.
She and her husband both work in the morning and are unable to take him their middle-schooler Jake to school.
He may have to walk more than a mile and a half to school, but the roads in their area aren't exactly pedestrian-friendly.
"It's a busy road and actually my friends have worse commutes for their children," Jercha said. "There aren't sidewalks to their school, so they're going to have to walk in ditches if they decide to walk to school."
Jake is worried he might not be able to walk that far.
"I can definitely not walk since I'm a type-1 diabetic," he said. "And it's about maybe a 30-minute walk to school and my blood sugars will probably drop and I'll drop too."
The next best option is a parent-led carpool system like one forming in the neighboring Olathe School District.
But these are band-aids on a larger wound, one that won't heal in time for school this fall.
Jercha admits the bus service wasn't great before the change, but at least it was there.
"My son would get to school late or come home a little late," she said. "But even with those inconveniences I knew he always had a ride to and from school."
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