Long bus routes concern Maries R-1 parents

By Colin Willard, Staff Writer
Posted 5/31/23

VIENNA — A parent of Maries R-1 students voiced her concerns about the district’s bus routes at the May 23 school board meeting.

Crystal Wagner is the mother of three students in the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Long bus routes concern Maries R-1 parents

Posted

VIENNA — A parent of Maries R-1 students voiced her concerns about the district’s bus routes at the May 23 school board meeting.

Crystal Wagner is the mother of three students in the district and one recent graduate. Before the meeting, she had sent a memo about her concerns to some of the board members.

“I know that this is something you’ve talked about and this is a concern of yours, too, but I just thought as parents it was important for you to hear us,” she said.

Wagner said her concerns were not with the school district itself but instead just the bus routes. Her kids love going to school in the district. She complimented the administrators and staff for creating an environment where kids want to go to school every day.

Both Wagner and her husband Shawn rode a bus when they attended school in the district. She said she had many fond memories of riding the bus, and the couple rode the school bus from the church where they got married to the reception hall.

“The school buses mean a lot to us,” she said.

Wagner said that a few years ago, the bus route her kids take expanded. At the time, she expressed concerns to Mark Parker, the district’s superintendent at the time.

“It started causing the kids to get on the bus much earlier than they had,” she said. “Before they’d maybe get on the bus at 7:10 (a.m.). It started inching up: 6:45, 6:30, to now 6:15 for kids to get on the bus.”

Wagner clarified that though she was speaking about the experiences of her own family, she knew that the district had extended its other bus routes, too.

“I’m not asking you to take from one bus route to put it on another bus route,” she said. “I realize it’s all bus routes that are facing this.”

Superintendent Teresa Messersmith said the issue of bus routes was not exclusive to the Maries R-1 district. She has talked with other superintendents about the issue and asked them for potential solutions, but many districts struggle with finding bus drivers.

“If you look at that in totality, our kids are spending over three hours a day on a bus round-trip,” Wagner said. “Our kids have to leave earlier to go to Vienna than I do to drive to Jefferson City to go to work.”

The bus route Wagner’s children take goes north from Paydown on Highway 63 to Quaker Windows & Doors, goes through Vienna on Highway 63 South, drives west on Highway 28 nearly to Route N and takes Maries Road 617 to Route V to pass through Vienna again before taking Highway 42 West, then coming back and finally returning to Vienna to drop the children off at school.

“My concern is not only the amount of time but (also) the safety concern of the major highways these kids are on just on one way to school,” Wagner said.

Another concern Wagner addressed was the district’s consideration of moving to a four-day school week, which would likely move forward bus pick-up and drop-off times. She said after reading through the results of the four-day school week parents’ survey the district published during the last semester, she knew she was not the only parent with concerns about early-morning bus routes.

“I would encourage the district to do a survey of the parents to gauge their concerns with the school bus routes,” she said.

Wagner said she knows labor shortages have affected many industries, and she suspected the district struggles to find drivers. She suggested the district look at a variety of bus-driving contractors to potentially help with the issue.

“This is a concern of ours,” board vice-president Dave Long said. “It’s been a concern of ours for several years. As you already hit on, the workforce (is) number one. We are looking at it. We’re aware of it and doing what we can with what we have.”

He added that he appreciated Wagner discussing her concerns at the meeting.

“You should never be afraid to voice something that you’re concerned about because unless you voice it, sometimes people don’t know,” board president Kacie James said.

“And it keeps it on the forefront of our minds because we know, and we don’t like (extended bus routes) either,” Messersmith said.

Wagner thanked the board members for their time and board members thanked the Wagners for bringing the concerns to them.