SAN ANTONIO-- Due to rezoning many children in the Northeast I.S.D. are attending new schools. As a result about 140 students who attend Wilderness Oak Elementary will not have bus service this year.
The students live off Wilderness Oak in The Forest at Stone Oak and Remington Heights subdivisions about 1.8 miles from their home campus. By state law school districts must provide transportation only to students who live outside a two-mile radius from their home school.
Ironically, a few families live over the two-mile radius and live in one of the excluded subdivisions, so the district will provide bus service for those three children.
"Why not pick up all the kids that are in that neighborhood," said Chris Young, who has three kids attending Wilderness Oak Elementary. "If you're already going to send a bus and you're letting kids get on why not let all the kids get on?"
The district reviewed the area and determined it did not meet requirements to be considered a dangerous route, which would also clear the way for bus service. Parents KENS 5 spoke with disagree and say drivers speed down Wilderness Oak during peak hours when children would be walking to campus.
Bethany Fuller has a fourth grade student attending Wilderness Oak Elementary and said she will drive her son to campus to avoid the dangerous roadway.
"The frustration lies in the fact that the district is not applying common sense or logic to a hazardous situation and we're just asking that they take a step back and ask themselves, if it was my son or daughter would I let them walk?" said Fuller.
Aubrey Chancellor, spokesperson for the NEISD, said the district reviews bus routes every year and will keep an eye on the students who live near Wilderness Oak Elementary.
"But we do have a checklist that we use on every single route throughout the district and we do have to be fair and consistent and this route just does not rise to the standards of what a hazardous route is considered," said Chancellor.
