Cape Board of Education moves bus decision to state

Tajear Freeman and his friends used to kill time waiting for the school bus playing tag in a neighbor's yard, but the game is more dangerous now that their bus stop sits on the busy Savannah Road in Lewes.

While the 9-year-old Richard Shields Elementary School student is disappointed he can't get in a morning football game, parents of the 11 students living in the Covey Creek development worry the new stop is unsafe for their children. Last year's stop, a tenth of mile into the neighborhood on East Wild Rabbit Run, provided a safer space for children, argues Freeman's mother, Jaimme Witherspoon.

"We didn't have to worry about the cars coming in and out," she said. "There's a lot of teenage students that go to Cape (Henlopen High School) and they're wild. They don't watch for the kids, we've had to tell them to stop."

Several buses in the Cape Henlopen School district once drove into developments, such as Covey Creek, to pick up students. But this year, the district mandated a walk zone and stopped driving into developments, unless the student lives less than half a mile from the entrance.

In the past, when the district requested additional buses for its fleet, the state denied those requests because Cape had not followed the code for development stops or enforced walk zones.

At the Oct. 9 Board of Education meeting, board members, such as Jennifer Burton, were caught between state mandates and local safety concerns.

"Obviously we have our hands tied with the Department of Education and Transportation Department," Burton said. "In a lot of these instances the state has no idea of what is going on down here. They don't come and look and they're not really mindful of what is happening."

The district has already made an exception for the Covey Creek bus stop, said Brian Bassett, director of administrative services for the Cape Henlopen School District. Although the neighborhood lies within Shields' walk zone, the railroad crossing Savannah Road qualified as a "unique hazard" for students.

In order for the district to move the stop at Savannah a tenth of a mile, students must be exposed to a "rare, uncommon traffic danger," Fulton said. After a visit to the bus stop, Fulton determined it did not pose a unique danger.

Board members voted to pass the decision to move the bus stop to the state. Michael Curry, who has three children in the district, expressed frustration with the vote.

"They're going to use us as the guinea pig for what the model is for the rest of the district," he said. "They don't want to make a decision that's going to benefit our kids because they're worried it's going to be a domino effect for the rest of the district."

lgiangrec@dmg.gannett.com

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