RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — After public concern from parents, bus drivers and the Mayor of La Vergne, the director of Rutherford County Schools discussed a new route forward Tuesday night. 

Although the Board of Education still has to vote to make it official, parent responsibility zones seem likely to be postponed. The measure aimed to cut roughly 44 bus routes for students living near their schools, to help bridge the gap in next year's budget.

“Looking at that the last couple days and talking to our individual board members, and then looking at it internally, we're going to recommend that we pause that for a year,” Sullivan said.

“The real possibility exists that we have a large number of contractors that don't sign on for next year. That's going to de facto create a parent responsibility zone where bus service is not provided,” Sullivan said. “That will shift our routes to where we now have a parent responsibility zone because we aren't able to fill routes.”

The idea of cutting bus services raised concern for parent Mike Felts. 

“A lot of the schools are in areas without sidewalks — some of them are on four-lane highways with 45 [or] 55 mile-per-hour speed limits,” Felts said. “All the time, pedestrians [are] being hit —and that's grown adults, much less a bunch of children out there walking around.” 

On Tuesday, Sullivan said the district might also open schools earlier so that parents can drop off their students. During the initial vote on PRZs, Sullivan told school board member Caleb Tidwell that earlier drop-off times would offset the cost savings of PRZs.  

“We can move school start times up where elementary starts at 7:30. We can move those to 7. That allows schools to open at 6:15, which allows parents to drop them off earlier,” Sullivan said Tuesday.  

Felts thought adding additional crosswalks and crossing guards would be needed for parental responsibility zones to work. He also was open to a suggested nickel tax, if necessary, to avoid cutting bus routes for students.

“I don't think the infrastructures in place for it to work well and it just doesn't seem like there was enough planning and research put into it," Felts said. "I know they're talking about maybe shelving the idea for a year to study it and revisit it in a year; I think if that's what they were going to do, they should have done that in the first place."

If the district doesn’t have enough drivers next year, Sullivan mentioned purchasing eight to 10 school buses and hiring drivers to operate them.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/some-rutherford-co-bus-contractors-pump-brakes-strike/