GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — Grain Valley Schools made the last-minute decision to suspend its bus routes Tuesday morning. This left parents and students frustrated, as many were already on the road or waiting at bus stops.
“It really impacted a lot of people, and they really dropped the ball on this,” said one mother in the district with a daughter in second grade.
Kate Banks received a text message from Grain Valley Schools at 7:51 a.m., ten minutes before her second-grader was supposed to hop on the bus.
“There are things that are out of out control, and I understand needing to have everybody’s safety as the utmost importance," Banks said. "But there should be things implemented — in place. I mean, we knew the weather was going to be below a freezing temperature."
Her daughter eventually made it to school, thanks to a neighbor, but other kids on the block were not so lucky. Another student who rides the bus from the same stop was left stranded there.
“I wanted to make other people aware of the significance of how this impacted kids that not only weren’t going to make it to school on time, [but] weren’t going to make it to school at all," Banks said. "What if those kids that their parents weren’t able to come back home from work are now home alone all day who maybe have never been home alone before?”
Frustrated families took to social media after the last-minute notice. Some said school should have been canceled as they experienced a near-miss driving on the icy roads.
KSHB 41 reached out to the school district, who says road conditions were good as of 5:30am. There was no rain and it was above freezing temperatures. But by the time conditions turned icy, bus routes were already underway.
A letter to families read in part:
“We considered canceling school, but it was already after 7:00 AM, leaving even less time for parents to make other arrangements for the rest of the day. We recognize the impact that the suspension of bus services had on your daily routines, and we appreciate your understanding and cooperation during such situations.”
“Making sure that those kids were all safe was obviously our main concern, but we didn’t take into consideration the kids who were left,” said Banks.
Families were told that the district is actively working to ensure it learns from this experience and make any necessary adjustments to their procedures so that it does not happen again.
Further, students will not be penalized in any way if they were not able to make it to school on Tuesday.
