Cd'A Schools hits brakes on bus route changes

COEUR d'ALENE — The Coeur d'Alene School District issued an apology to families Tuesday after sending a communication Friday with information detailing abrupt changes to bus routes that would have disrupted or eliminated transportation for some students.

Along with the apology, the district announced it will not be moving forward with the proposed route changes.

The original communication was sent 11 days before the first day of the 2023-2024 school year, which begins Tuesday. It instructed parents to type their addresses into a lookup tool to find their students' bus stops, as routes and stops had changed.

"As parents went through that process, many learned that bus routes had been significantly impacted or eliminated," Superintendent Shon Hocker said in the Tuesday communication to families.

He said shortly after parents received the first communication, they contacted the district with questions and concerns.

"To those of you who reached out with feedback, thank you," Hocker said. "We truly appreciate your input."

As of this Friday, routes will be restored to the same or similar to what was provided last school year.

Hocker said the district cannot expect parents and families to pivot so close to the first day of school.

"We apologize for catching many of you off guard with the scope of the route changes (eliminating stops), the impacts to your families and the timing of our first direct communication about these significant adjustments," Hocker said. "We know it has caused disruption at a very busy time. We should have managed the process more inclusively and communicated much earlier, much more thoroughly and much more often. We should have done better, and we will."

The changes would have included eliminating bus service for students who live less than 1.5 miles from their schools.

"Many houses are well over 1.8 miles from the school and they have been cut off," Jennifer Ramsrud of Coeur d'Alene, who has two kids in the district, told The Press. "This is resulting in young children walking potential routes in the dark, snow and rain."

Jeff Voeller, director of operations for the district, said the changes would have been made to address staffing and funding shortages.

"When we have such limited resources, and with the levy, too, we’ve been looking for efficiencies wherever we can gain them," he said. "We looked at where those boundaries were, but I think we did too much too fast."

He said slight changes have been made where students won't lose transportation service.

"If anyone lost transportation, those are the ones we’re going to roll back on," he said.

Other changes will be coming in the future to accommodate growth and development in the area, but Voeller said no timeline is set for those.

Ramsrud, whose family lives in the Fairway Hills neighborhood, said one of her children's routes would have been canceled if the changes went through. She said she is glad the district is listening to parents and acknowledging the lack of communication regarding this important decision.

"As a working parent, I rely on the bus to provide a safe route to school for my 12-year-old," Ramsrud said after the district announced it would put the brakes on the major bus route changes.

"The safest walking route we have from our home to his school does not have consistent sidewalk access and includes a more secluded part of the Centennial Trail with limited lighting," she said. "So yes, I am happy to hear they will be restoring bus service to all eligible student riders."