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Bus routes limited
by safety, time
By SHARON KILPATRICK
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
When Julie Kuykendall moved to Rappahannock County in June, she assumed that her children would be able to ride the bus to school from the end of her driveway.
However, when she called the School Board office about three weeks ago to find out what school her third and fourth graders would be attending and when the bus would come, she found out that the bus does not travel through her part of Route 637 near Huntly.
Actually, the county is only required by law to provide bus transportation for special education students, Superintendent David Gangel said. “We would like to be able to pick up every student,” he said. “But there are places we can’t go because of safety,” he explained.
Some of the things he has to consider in deciding whether to extend a bus route are the width of the road and visibility. “There are roads where it is safe to drive a car but not a school bus,” he said. “A 64-passenger bus is long; it is not supposed to back up except at designated turn around places.”
He also has to consider, if it is not a through route, whether there is a safe place to turn the bus around and the length of the bus route. “We try to keep all routes under an hour long,” he said.
Even if the road were wide enough to allow safe travel, extending the route to serve Mrs. Kuykendall’s children would add 16 minutes to the length of the route. The route is already 45 to 50 minutes long, Dr. Gangel said.
And, the superintendent added, there is a question
See BUS, p. 12
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