ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Many schoolchildren in the community lack a reliable mode of transportation to school in the mornings, and a new program will look to help with just that starting this school year.
Juvenile Support Services Corp will be helping students attend school by providing free transportation for USD 480 students who need assistance getting to school. The program looks to help students who missed the bus, live outside the designated bus route areas, and/or do not have access to reliable transportation to school.
Coordinator Tina West said her motivation for starting the program was to help students in need.
“I used to be a truancy officer, and I had seen a lot of students being late or not going to school because they just didn't have transportation to school, or they were just out of the designated bus area, so it was causing them to become truants,” West said. “I eventually said, ‘You know what? I can break that barrier that's causing this issue for those students. So that's when I came up with the idea, and after praying on it, I knew it was something I wanted to do.”
West then went into more detail about how the program works.
“The program will start when school starts back up, and all the parents have to do is give me a call and tell me their child is having issues getting to school because of some circumstance or another. Once they reach out to me, I'll put them on the list and get them picked up and off to school the next morning. I do understand emergency situations happen, but if possible, parents should get in touch with me at least a day ahead of time. That way, I can plan my route out, because I want to be able to fit everyone in who needs it. I’m really excited about being able to help those who are in need. That's basically what I'm excited about, along with the children being able to take advantage of this so they can get to school. I've had a couple people already reach out to me, so I feel like it's going to be big. But I'm excited to see where it goes and see how many children I can help.”
Seeing such a big response even before the start of the school year, West said, is surprising but very positive.
“I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect with this when I came up with the idea, I thought ‘It'll be maybe 10 to 12 kids probably, some where around that number,” West said. “But I’ve already had a few people get in touch with me, and the word about this program hasn’t even really been out for that long, so I'm excited to see how everything will turn about. But again, I want to make it very clear it's morning pickups only – we won’t go pick them up after school, the kids will have to figure that part out. But getting them to school on time is the goal.”
West said the main goal of the program is to help any students in USD 480 who need the assistance.
“I'll pick up any students and go all the schools, but my target base for sure – to help knock out the truancy issue – is the students in middle school and high school,” West said. “It’s staggering how many students in town don’t have reliable transportation to school. Some kids are in a situation where their parents are going to work at 6 in the morning and just can't get them to school, so the kids have to rely on themselves to get to school. Then you have the students who are outside of the bus area, so they don't have transportation because they're just outside of the bus area, so they have to either walk to rely on friends or someone else to help. I've even seen a few cases where you know some rely on friends and they don't get there on time. I've seen some cases where, if the student has to walk, they ultimately decide ‘It's too far. I'm not doing it.’ I want to help those students in need get to school so they don’t wind up in trouble and break down that barrier they might be facing.”
Anyone needing the program’s assistance can call West at (620) 641-0490.
“There are no extra requirements, they just need to get in touch with me and let me know they need their child(ren) picked up and taken to school,” West said. “And again, I want to make sure everyone understands it's mornings only, and I would prefer parents giving me a little bit of time because I’ll probably be dealing with multiple children, and some schools start at one time and other schools start at another time. I want to be considerate of those different times so everyone is getting to their school on time.”
