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HOWLAND -- A Howland parent is urging school officials to move a Venice Drive bus stop away from a four-way intersection over safety concerns, but district administrators say routing guidelines and on-site observations don't support making a change.
As Monday's board meeting concluded, the Howland Board of Education heard from Stephanie Orr, who read a letter from a concerned parent regarding a bus stop on the corner of Anderson Avenue and Venice Drive.
"I feel that it is a dangerous bus stop for the kids; it is a four-way stop, and hardly anybody stops. Most people just roll right through it," the letter states. "I, along with a few other parents, would like the bus stop to be changed to the cul-de-sac on Venice Drive, please, it would be much safer."
Orr said she was at the meeting to speak about that same bus stop, noting the children who use that bus stop get on the bus at Venice.
Orr said motorists think the stop signs are optional and roll "right through them," alleging that a police officer did so on the second day of school on an occasion where he wasn't going to a call.
"Just last week, a guy in a red truck, while the bus was there, continued to roll through that stop sign and go around everybody," Orr said.
Orr said she's spoken with Charles Mendenhall, the district's transportation supervisor, but she was told it was a Howland police problem.
"Please put on the record that once again, another car -- multiple has gone through -- in one day, we counted 12," Orr said. "All we ask is, please move it down to the Venice cul-de-sac, where they had it last year, and I was told it would take too much time.
"If it worked last year, why can't it work this year to make our kids safe; that's all we're asking. Think of the safety of our kids, because the next step is we're going to stand in the middle of the intersection and make our kids safe."
Superintendent Kevin Spicher said Wednesday that the district utilizes Transfinder to create bus stops, and safety is considered in the program's parameters, adding that it considers four-way stops to be a "gold mine."
"If you can put a bus stop at a four-way stop, that means that all cars are going to be stopping at that bus stop in all four directions. So that's what this particular stop is," Spicher said.
He said the other nearby stop is also a four-way, and it's almost identical, adding that officials have received no complaints from parents.
Spicher said officials and bus drivers do not have evidence to support Orr's claims that people are rolling through the stop, adding that Transfinder and the Ohio Department of Transportation endorse bus stops, and they want them to be at intersections where they know cars will not be moving along the road.
"They want them where they know that people are going to be paying more attention and getting close to stopping," Spicher said. "(It) doesn't mean we put them right in the intersection; we put them back off of it a little bit, which is best practice."
Spicher said that if officials move a bus stop because of one parent's complaint, there may be eight to 10 others who want it to stay as is.
Spicher, who had Mendenhall present, noted his history as a retired state trooper and said Mendenhall has gone to the stop at 6:30 a.m. to verify the claims about cars rolling through.
Spicher said Mendenhall had learned that the school bus's yellow lights were still on, as the bus was coming to a stop, and motorists are permitted to proceed through the intersection when the lights are on.
"The bus driver never gave any report to the transportation supervisor because she never even knew of any incident about someone blowing through the intersection," Spicher said.
Mendenhall said they try to get the license plates of vehicles that run the stop signs to report them, but they don't move the stops because someone ran it one time.
Spicher said Mendenhall was "absolutely right" when he told Orr it was a police issue.
"We do care about the safety of kids, but when it comes down to if someone is going to run a stop sign or what have you, or not come to a complete stop, it really is a police issue," Spicher said.
Mendenhall, who is in his first full year as the district's transportation supervisor, said he never confirmed that the stop was changed to be at a cul-de-sac, and Spicher said he couldn't confirm it because the previous supervisor is gone and he never mentioned it to him.
"I would not even want to be able to speculate whether it was moved or not because I don't know anything about that, and I wouldn't be able to offer any information on it," Spicher said.