CYPRESS, Texas (KTRK) – Monday is the first day of school for more than 118,000 students in the second-largest school district in the greater Houston area, Cy-Fair ISD.
Due to the cancellation of numerous bus routes, many families had to change and find new ways to take their children to school.
For most students, transportation service is not a required service in public school districts, but there is no doubt that since the service was offered, parents have become dependent on it, making this change difficult for many families.
ABC13 reporter Courtney Carpenter spoke to parents as they sat in traffic trying to get to school on Monday.
All morning, the area near Telge and Cypress North Houston experienced nightmare traffic. Some parents told Courtney it took them about an hour to drop off their children, and many believe the congestion has something to do with the county’s bus route cuts.
“We got here at 7:15 and dropped our kid off … but yeah, an hour in line,” said parent Shelby Cline. “At the middle school, they basically make them get off at the light, get out of their cars and just run to school. And it’s still out of control.”
Expect school traffic to be tough the first few days, but Monday exceeded expectations for many Cy-Fair ISD parents.
“We’ve been on the road for about 45 minutes,” said father Jeff Atkinson in line outside Arnold Middle School.
“I left our house in Ravensway at about 7.10am and everyone on that street was pushing and shoving. It was chaos,” said mother Kim Henry.
Some of the additional cars are due to cuts to bus line 79 that the district made for cost reasons.
That’s why Ibeth was standing in line on Monday morning. Her daughter’s route was canceled.
“We rely on the buses, so I don’t know how people are supposed to do that when they have to go to work,” Ibeth told Courtney. “It’s crazy. I would never let my daughter just walk around on that street. It’s busy. I don’t know. They just haven’t thought this through.”
The district said the decision was a question of money. Cy-Fair ISD has a budget deficit of nearly $140 million. Cutting 79 bus routes will save about $4.8 million, which the district says is equivalent to about 75 teacher positions.
Cy-Fair ISD said the goal was to keep the cuts from impacting classroom instruction, but the bus route cuts are forcing families to make big changes.
A woman who spoke to ABC13 said her 12-year-old daughter now has to walk 1.9 miles to Arnold Middle School along a busy road with no sidewalks.
The mother said she turned down three job offers to work from home because she felt the only safe option was to take her daughter to school herself.
READ MORE: Parents confront Cy-Fair ISD board over bus route cuts, trustees apologize for drastic changes
At the board meeting last week, trustees said it was a difficult decision.
“I want to say that I regret voting for this portion of our budget and I humbly apologize to our Cy-Fair families,” said Trustee Christine Kalmbach.
“Again, I am sincerely sorry to those who are negatively affected by these changes,” said Trustee Todd LeCompte.
The district said most elementary school campuses will have a designated crosswalk at the main entrance and that training will be offered to neighborhoods interested in organizing volunteers to monitor other intersections.
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