Hunter Ridge, Briarwood, Colony Lakes and its adjacent neighborhoods are a mixed community of homes based on distance from School as both have homes that more than 1.5 miles and less than 1.5 miles from the Fischer Middle school and Gombert Elementary.  Some of the homes towards the southern end of the sub-division are eligible for a bus ride based on their distance from school while all other homes do not. This differentiation is based on Indian Prairie School District (IPSD) applying the distance criteria in determining eligibility for Bus Transportation. Though this rule has been in effect all these years, only now at a very short notice, IPSD decided to implement it. This leaves a vast majority of children without bus transportation from this upcoming academic year and are compelled to cross through the morning rush hour traffic.

The eligibility distance of 1.5 miles is a state requirement but the distance calculation from School to Home is done by the online calculator based on inputs defined by IPSD. Here, the back door which is the School Bus drop off point is taken as one of the end points for distance calculation while the Front door, which is farther away is the designated entry for walkers/ bikers/ self-transported students. On making this change several more homes will qualify for Bus Transportation. This shows that the intent of IPSD is to keep the children eligible for Bus Transportation to the minimum and not looking at the true wellbeing of the students.

For the middle schoolers to reach school on their bikes or by walk, must cross either one of the two traffic junctions on Montgomery Road during the early morning rush hour. The safety risk is high because at these junctions when the Pedestrian Crossing light is ON, its also a GREEN light for all the vehicles coming in from the North side and turning left into Montgomery Road. It will only take an impatient driver or a hurrying kid who is late to school, to cause an accident , which could have been well avoided if the Bus Transportation was continued like the previous years. Moreover, this Montgomery Road is also witness to cyclists fatally hit by speeding cars. In the recent years, the construction of a bridge over the railroad tracks on Ogden Ave. has contributed to the increase in vehicular traffic on Montgomery – Frontenac section and contributed to the traffic accidents too.

Some of the factors that add to the anxiety of the parents are the heavy school bags, the large group of school kids on bikes racing against each other across the dangerous and narrow pedestrian cross, the unpredictable and inclement weather we are experiencing and the fact that the pedestrian crossing light is ON for only 20 seconds before it starts flashing.

This is a totally unexpected move by IPSD and this could soon happen in other school districts across the nation. Since the decision by IPSD only impacts a small community, it is probably not found worthy for wider news coverage but for the parents, its already causing sleepless nights of anxiety and concern.

This is also an appeal to the Fischer Middle School PTA and the Gombert Elementary School PTA to take up this issue and convince the authorities in continuing with Bus Transportation for these two neighborhoods.

Kindly sign, support and share this petition to urge IPSD and Fischer Middle School and Gombert Elementary to reconsider extending Bus transportation to this neighborhood and alleviate all the safety fears of the parents.