Pingree Grove parents upset about new bus stops

Most school districts have busing issues on the first day of school that usually get better as drivers and students get used to the routes.

Some parents in Pingree Grove, though, say the concerns they have with their children's buses are more than just the typical first-day hitches.

Their complaints stem from Community Unit District 300's decision to restructure the bus stops in and around the sprawling Cambridge Lakes subdivision in Pingree Grove.

To make bus routes more efficient, the district consolidated some stops and moved most of the stops from side streets to Wester Boulevard - the major road that goes through Cambridge Lakes.

Parents in the area say they understand district officials' desire to consolidate stops but that placing those stops along Wester Boulevard is unsafe for students, besides creating traffic backups for cars that have to wait for buses to load or unload students.

"It's pretty dangerous to begin with," said Joe Klemencic, whose daughter attends Wright Elementary School in Hampshire. "They're picking up kids along a major thruway because it's a cost savings - without thinking about safety."

Instead, parents are asking the district to move the stops back to the side streets, without necessarily adding any stops.

"If you need one stop per subdivision, that's fine, but put it inside the subdivision, not on Wester," said Sarah Hettinger, who has two kids at Wright Elementary. "It's really only a block ... and the kids will be safer."

District officials, however, disputed parents' characterization of Wester Boulevard as unsafe, pointing out the posted speed limit is 25 mph and saying that many students throughout the district board buses in similar conditions.

"It's not a high-speed area," District 300 spokeswoman Allison Strupeck said. "The environment that is around these bus stops is not different from the environment around other bus stops in the district."

Strupeck said the district will continue to monitor student safety at the new stops and that Pingree Grove is providing extra police patrols during the first two weeks of school to ensure everything goes smoothly.

Pingree Grove officials said the village board will discuss the issues the new stops pose for public safety and public works employees and hope to set up a meeting with their District 300 counterparts to address parents' concerns.

"We're just trying to wrap our arms around what it means to us," Pingree Grove Village President Wyman "Clint" Carey said. "Hopefully, we can find solutions together."