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Even though Carol Wujcik lives in Terryville, she sends her kids to the Maloney Magnet School in Waterbury and the Plymouth school district oversees the bus routes.
Days before Christmas, she received a letter from Plymouth Superintendent, Dr. Anthony Distasio, about the changes.
“No parents were notified of any issues with the bus stops until we received this letter,” Wujcik said.
Starting later this year, instead of being picked up in front of their homes, Dr. Distasio stated that students would be picked up and dropped off at two bus stops -- one on each side of town.
For some parents, that could mean the bus stops are miles from their homes.
In Wujcik’s neighborhood, there are no sidewalks for her kindergartener and third grader to walk on.
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“There are a lot of small children,” she said. “There’s no way they could walk any distance, wherever this bus is going to be,” she said.
There are two main reasons for the consolidation, the superintendent wrote in the letter to parents, complaints from some that kids were spending too much time on the bus, as well as the high cost of busing to outside schools.
Parents said safety should come first, which is why they started a petition.
“Hopefully he understands he made a wrong decision and they turn things around and leave them the way they are,” parent Debbie Whitford said.
Under state guidelines, school districts must provide transportation to magnet schools.
The state is supposed to reimburse the districts for doing so.
