Demonstrators March To Protest LEUSD School Bus Service Cuts

Story updated March 26 at 12:23 p.m.

Parents, community members, school bus drivers, at least one district official, and California School Employees Association members walked more than 4 miles along Highway 74 from Meadowbrook Road to Temescal Canyon High School to demonstrate what they say is a dangerous road for children to walk, bicycle or skateboard in order to get to class.

The nearly 100 demonstrators walked Monday in protest of the elimination of school bus service for students in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District.

Holding signs and donning slickers and caps to ward off the rain, the demonstrators began their hour-and-half trek at approximately 6:45 a.m.  

Without school bus service, “throughout the Valley there will be 4,000 kids on the street,” urged grandparent Bob Deshazer, a LEUSD delivery driver and first vice president of the local CSEA chapter who walked Monday. “The safety of the kids is out the window.”

According to district figures, the total number of students currently being bused is 4,467.

Paula Pelton is a school bus driver for the Moreno Valley Unified School District. She joined Monday’s walk and said her district is also facing transportation cuts. She said

“Safety and quality comes in a yellow school bus. The fact that the students have to walk the large amount of roadway to get to their school is not safe,” she said. “This road has no sidewalk, no gutters. The students have to walk on a highway. There is no lighting. It’s horrible.”

But Pelton said she is optimistic and believes the LEUSD is concerned about student safety.

“I think with the show of support from the parents and the community, we can get the busses back.”

LEUSD figures show that 82 people work in transportation, including 67 bus drivers.

Carrie Trimble, an LEUSD school bus driver and a parent, said without buses her own children have to walk more than 10 miles to get to school, adding that some students would have to walk more.

“It makes me angry,” she said, arguing that the LEUSD can use cash reserves to fund school bus service.

But fielding reporters’ questions Monday, LEUSD spokesman Mark Dennis said cash reserves are restricted for purposes of ensuring the district can meet its obligations in times of emergency and should not be used as a one-time budget fix or to shore up deficit spending.

Under state budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the district is losing its annual funding for both the home-to-school and special needs transportation programs. Transportation costs for both programs total $5,891,552 for the 2011-12 school year, . At the beginning of the 2011-12 school year, state funding for both programs totaled $2,096,717, district staff reported.

Under state law, the district is required to provide bussing for its special needs students. That service will remain and district staff pegs the cost at $2.5 million for the 2012-13 school year.

As a result of the state budget cuts,

Jeanie Corral, 68, the LEUSD’s oldest governing board member, was on hand Monday, but she walked in the opposite direction of the demonstrators -- from her home near Temescal Canyon High School to Meadowbrook.

“I bring my stick and I’m armed with the Lord,” she said as motorists whizzed by at speeds of more than 60 mph. “I’m not afraid.”

Corral acknowledged that student safety is of utmost concern to the LEUSD, but said the state has placed all California school districts in a precarious situation.

“Anything that puts kids at risk, is a terrible thing … but we don’t have the money,” Corral said.

“There are no shortcuts to accomplishing what needs to be done,” she continued. “We can all work together to find solutions.”

Corral challenged the state to restore transportation funding to school districts, and she called on the City of Lake Elsinore to make city streets safer for schoolchildren by slowing traffic and building sidewalks.

But she also called on parents to form carpools and, when possible, walk with their kids to school.

“I think if a 70-year-old woman can do it, (parents) can do it with kids in tow,” she said.

Currently, the district is facing a $15 million budget gap for the 2012-13 school year, and the district is looking for a revised budget from the governor in May, Dennis said. If state transportation funding is restored for the 2012-13 school year, there will be negotiation to bring back home-to-school bus service in the LEUSD, he added.

“There are a lot of moving parts,” Dennis said.