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Last year, both of Kami Culb's children rode the school bus to Monocacy Elementary School, so Culb didn't have to worry about the lack of a traffic light and the heavy traffic along Hayward Road.

But this year things are different, said Culb, who has a fifth- and a second-grader at the school.

As a result of money-saving changes in the school system's transportation practices last year, both of Culb's children and about 1,000 other students in Frederick County Public Schools have lost their seats on the bus.

Some parents — particularly those in New Market, Mount Airy and Amber Meadows with elementary school children — are fighting the new policy.

For Culb, the walk to Monocacy Elementary is short, but it means crossing Hayward Road, a direct route for commuters going to U.S. Route 15.

Culb said she was worried about the transportation change all through the summer, and even asked the school system to re-evaluate the area. When they declined, she asked for a crossing guard, but the answer was no.

"I just want my children to be safe," she said on Monday, when she started the new school year by walking her children to school.

"This is just a bad situation," she said. "Every parent that I have spoken with is upset about this."

Board members decided to cut down on student transportation in February as they worked to close a then-$21 million gap in their fiscal 2010 budget.

In February, the board voted to increase walking distances for all students, except for those in primary schools. So this year, elementary students can only be bused if they live farther than 1.25 miles of school. Middle and high school students qualify for busing if they live farther than 1.75 miles from school.

Before the change, the school system bused elementary students if they lived father than three-quarters of a mile and middle and high school students, when they lived farther than 1.25 miles.

According to Hal Keller, the school system's finance director, the change allowed the school system to save $965,000. In fiscal 2010, which started July 1, the system has budgeted to spend $18.8 million on student transportation, Keller said.

Continuing to fight

But many parents remain upset.

Some had concerns about the safety of their children, and others have criticized the school board for making the change hastily and without holding a public hearing.

In New Market, parents drove all students to school on the same day to illustrate the problems the change would create.

In the Village Gate and Twin Ridge communities near Mount Airy, on the other hand, parents tried to sort out their concerns with the staff at the Frederick County Public Schools transportation department.

Parents there were concerned about the safety of walking along Rising Ridge Road. They were upset because their community has been an exception to transportation changes for years, so they filed an appeal asking the school system to re-evaluate the safety issues in the area and put Twin Ridge students back on school buses.

While these concerns were not a priority over the summer, parents now are coming back recharged and ready to continue fighting for busing.

In Twin Ridge, parents found over the summer that school officials denied their appeal, said Donnamarie Needle, one of the parents advocating for busing in the Village Gate and Twin Ridge communities.

That decision, however, has only galvanized parents, Needle said. Twin Ridge parents started their fight for transportation last year and in June even walked along Rising Ridge road with representatives of the Frederick County transportation department who came to re-assess the safety of the area.

Now that parents have learned that their appeal has been denied, parents in the areas feel disappointed and do not believe that staff heard any of their concerns, Needle said.

"It is my opinion that they just came here to appease us," she said.

Parents from the Twin Ridge and Village Gate communities now are planning their new strategy and trying to decide what steps they can take so that their children can get busing at least in the coming school year.

Needle said one of the steps parents in the communities are planning to take is to unite with other parents in the county who oppose the change in transportation lobby the board to go back to their old busing practice. Needle said one of her biggest concerns is that transportation does not seem to be given to students equitably across the system.

For instance, while the board decided to change the busing rules for elementary, middle and high schools, the rules for busing primary students remained the same. The board decided on that because board members felt that in elementary schools, older students can help younger students get home, Needle said.

"I don't think that is consistent with their policy," she said. "My fifth-grader should not be responsible for somebody else's second-grader."

While parents across the county are forming a response to the board's decision, most of them are choosing to drive their students to school.

The push for ‘walking buses'

Kim Glynn, president of the New Market MOMS Club, had been critical of the new policy, but said she was not having a lot of trouble adjusting to the morning drive to New Market Elementary. Afternoon pick-up is a bit more complicated, she said. "Pick-up time [Monday] was a bit hairy," she said.

New Market Elementary Principal Cindy Alvarado said car riders this year have doubled, and the number of walking students has gone from 10 to nearly 50. Alvarado said Tuesday the school had already modified its procedure to try to get car riders through faster. "It took a long time for the car riders to get through," she said. "We'll keep modifying it until it works," she said.

Cindy Bowers of the Frederick County Health Department is hoping that some parents will chose to walk their children to school this year, as opposed to driving them.

The health department is helping the school system use a $143,500 federal Safe Routes to Schools to educate parents in alternatives to driving.

One idea is "walking buses," or groups of children that walk to school together chaperoned by an adult. This concept is popular on the West Coast and in New York, Bowers said. "It's a new idea in Maryland," she said.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net and Margarita Raycheva at mraycheva@gazette.net.