The Lake Orion Review reported on Aug. 25 a Blanche Sims Elementary School parent’s concerns regarding the Lake Orion Schools changing their busing program so that her daughter would have to walk to school this year.
The article said that students within one mile of the school would now be considered walkers, although there were nearby bus stops in the neighborhood.
Jim Ferran, transportation director for Lake Orion Schools, returned a phone call to The Review on Aug. 27, to report that the cause of the change in the schools? bus program was due to state funding cuts.
‘The walk areas have been expanded for some elementary and secondary schools that can handle it,? he said. ‘The boundary (for walkers) for elementary is a mile, and for secondary schools, up to 1 and 1/2 miles. It’s all due to the state cutting our funding, forcing us to have to reduce bus drivers.?
Ferran said all of Lake Orion’s transportation system has been affected, and that he had to trim half a million dollars from the budget this year.
‘A letter was mailed out to parents in the spring,? he said. ‘We’ve talked with them.?