Days after the Austin Independent School District Officials released a new hub transportation plan for middle and high school students, district officials announced Friday that they would keep neighborhood bus stops for middle schoolers. The hub system will remain for high school students.
Kris Hafezizadeh, AISD’s executive director of transportation and vehicle services, said in an email that the district identified new savings with the closure of Paredes Middle School. The district abruptly decided to close the campus weeks before school started because of low academic ratings and staffing issues.
“Austin ISD has decided to apply these savings to accommodate increased transportation costs related to adding back these stops,” Hafezizadeh said in his email. “Bus stop hubs for high school students will continue at elementary schools and community centers near their homes.”
The change was received with relief by a lot of AISD families after they had raised concerns about the hub plan putting students in danger by making them walk or bike along high-speed roads and through busy intersections. The hub system requires students to walk an average of 2 to 2.5 miles, instead of being picked up at their neighborhood stop. District officials said the official stops for middle school students will be made public by Thursday.
Katy Chrzanowski, who has kids at each school level, said before the announcement Friday that she had logistical concerns on how to get her kids to school at three different times and worried about her two elder sons having to walk or bike two miles along high-speed roads. She said she and her neighbors also worried about the traffic that would be created around their elementary school, which was to be the hub for multiple middle school and high schools.
“I was very relieved and grateful that they listened to feedback, because I’m sure they got a lot of it,” Chrzanowski said. “At least getting middle school back in the neighborhood [bus stops] is gonna be so helpful. And I think that will help relieve the chaotic mess that it would have created.”
After listening to feedback, AISD officials added over 50 hubs to the original plan with a total of 254 by Thursday. AISD officials said they continue to assess if more hubs need to be added. Families can provide feedback on the transportation hubs through a survey. Hafezizadeh included in his email details on where pick up and drop off points would be for every hub.
Chrzanowski said her family still has to figure out logistics on how to get her eldest son to and from school. She said she worries about the long stretch her son would have to walk or bike and that high school students will be driving with multiple kids in a car.
“We were hoping that maybe they could find just a different hub. I understand hubs if you have to cut costs; it makes sense,” she said. “But we were just hoping to get one [hub] on our side of the highway. Two miles across the highway is just crazy, a crazy ask, I think.”