Seattle schools consider earlier bus routes

The Seattle School District is considering changes to its
bus schedule that could force some kids to wait for a ride
at 6:30am.

The school board went to the transportation department in
February and said it had to find $1 million worth of
savings for the upcoming school year.

There are currently about 21 different starting times in
the district. If they can get that down near six, the
district believes it can consolidate more bus runs and
make transportation more efficient.

But to do that, some schools would be forced to start and
end about an hour earlier than they do now, and others
would start and end an hour later. That means some kids
could be waiting for the bus at 6:30am.

The school board rushed this through without any public
comment, but there is already a huge backlash to the idea.
The Seattle Times reports 1,500
people have already signed an online petition to prevent
this.

The school board is expected to vote on the changes next
Wednesday.

This would be the second major bus schedule change in as
many years. The last one was supposed to save $4 million.
It only saved about half that.