Video: Board Agrees to Take A Second Look at Elimination of Daycare Bus Stops

District 13 school administrators will be taking a closer look at new bus routes, after three dozen parents and a handful of local daycare providers packed Strong School library Wednesday night to voice their criticism of the district's plan to save $47,000 by reducing bus stops.

Much of the criticism was directed at the elimination of door-to-door bus service for daycare students, which parents said would impact the students' safety.

Under the new routes -- which were of several months by DATTCO officials and members of a school transportation panel -- daycare students would need to be escorted to designated bus stops.

But following an hour-long public comment period -- which at times got heated -- the school board agreed to take into consideration complaints from licensed daycare providers, giving the indication that the district would likely continue providing the door-to-door service.

Superintendent Susan Viccaro said her office has received more than 100 calls from parents and daycare providers upset over the changes to bus stops, which were released on the district's website last Friday.

The complaints continued last night.

"My daughter gets the bus at 176 Howd Road. She'll have to walk around a blind corner where in years past, the very route that she walks a first grader was killed, hit by a car," said parent Larry DiBernardo. "I'm here out of concern, obviously, and I just think its completely unsafe."

Kelly Monroe, a lifelong Durham resident who lives on Old Farms Road, said her children's bus stop hadn't changed for 40 years, until this year.

"My children are now expected to walk about half-a-mile… down a very dangerous road. I don't know where they're going to stand" she said. 

"You say it's a budgetary issue, but you're going to spend $67,000 to change the lightbulbs at the school with a $20,000 grant. But my child's safety is only worth $47,000. I ask you to reconsider this, for the safety of our children."

Ellen Sibilia, who owns Dolphin Days Learning Center, asked the board to reconsider putting the new bus stop near the corner of Ozick Drive and Route 68.

"There's many accidents on that road. We're talking about a major highway," she said. "I'm representing at least 40 families of kids that are going to be picked up and dropped off at Dolphin Days."

Munchkins Preschool and Daycare owner Deborah Papallo said eliminating the bus stops in front of daycare facilities not only raised safety concerns, but also economic concerns. 

"What are the parents supposed to do? Where can they bring their children? No other daycare is going to take them because they don't have bus stops either," explained Papallo, who said she had already lost some of her children over the change.

"This was done with a lot of thought and a lot of effort," board chair Thomas Hennick said in response to the criticism. "Sometimes things don't come out as good as they look on paper, that's why we're here listening tonight."

Apart from reducing the budget, Viccaro said eliminating bus stops was also done to solve the district's ongoing problem of students arriving late to school.

"From my perspective, the main reason we looked at consolidating the stops was because every day last year we had children going to Brewster and Korn school who got their late, every single day," she said.

Phil Johnson, vice president of DATTCO, said about 350 out of the roughly 2,000 bus stops in Durham and Middlefield had been eliminated under the new bus routes. He said allowing the daycare stops to continue as-is would not have a significant impact on the new routes.

With only a week left before school starts, school administrators are expected to begin reaching out to daycare providers Thursday. The businesses will need to provide the district with a proof of license, the number of children the district serves, as well as any complaints or special considerations.

In the meantime, the board made no indications that it was prepared to make any immediate changes to other bus stops.

"We have been sending out people to look at concerns," Viccaro said. "The review is ongoing."

Parents who would like to file a complaint are asked to submit a written letter to Eileen Bengston, the district's transportation liaison.