DENVER (KDVR) — Denver Public Schools students are back in class, but getting to school has become a serious problem for some families.
DPS said they had to cut some bus services to align with the Board of Education’s Healthy Start Times resolution, prompting transportation cuts for six of the district’s 204 schools.
Lynne Ly told FOX31 the cuts severely impact students like her daughter, Mai Archibald, who’s in the special education program at Morey Middle School.
“It’s mostly the traffic downtown that is our biggest concern,” Ly said. “These streets are not made for this volume of families coming to the school.”
Her concern is shared by other parents, like Janna Steele.
“The amount of traffic here and the speeds that people are driving is scaring both us and our kids,” Steele said.
Denver Public Schools: Bus use considered
In a statement to FOX31, DPS said these decisions were not made lightly.
To reduce the overall impact of transportation cuts, we looked at utilization rates to see how many students were using each route. Then we factored in the Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) percentage of riders assigned to each route. By prioritizing rider utilization and FRL percentages, we were able to ensure that our families who most rely on DPS transportation will continue to be able to access their buses to the greatest extent possible.
Denver Public Schools
But not giving up hope, Ly and Steele, along with other parents, voiced their concerns at the DPS Board of Education meeting on Monday night.
“Asking parents to drive downtown can take an hour each time they pick up and drop off. That’s two hours a day, 10 hours a week,” Jason, a parent, said. “It makes it virtually impossible and has created a huge crisis, not to mention traffic, pollution and safety concerns around both Polaris (Elementary School) and Morey.”
Several students also spoke out at the board meeting.
“I want my buses back,” one student said. “I want to be able to get to school safe, and I want my friends to get to school safe, too.”
Ly said it’s a final push to make their voices heard and bring attention to implications for families across the city.
“It’s not just the parents,” Ly said. “The whole city is going to be impacted.”
How school start times affected bus cuts
DPS said 22 of its 645 transportation segments were impacted, and these cuts were announced to the community during the 2022-23 school year.
The full statement from DPS is below:
Beginning this year, Denver Public Schools have new bell times that align with the Board of Education’s Healthy Start Times resolution. To determine the new bell times, we relied on feedback and data collected throughout the district from surveys and conversations with our DPS community. Because of these new start and end times, six of our 204 schools will have full or partial transportation cuts.
These decisions were not taken lightly. To reduce the overall impact of transportation cuts, we looked at utilization rates to see how many students were using each route. Then we factored in the Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) percentage of riders assigned to each route. By prioritizing rider utilization and FRL percentages, we were able to ensure that our families who most rely on DPS transportation will continue to be able to access their buses to the greatest extent possible.
The Healthy Start Times resolution created time windows in which each school level starts. Because of these windows, we had to make a few cuts to the transportation plan. In the end, 22 of our 645 transportation segments were impacted. These cuts were announced to our communities during the ’22-’23 school year.
Denver Public Schools
