Published: July 02, 2008 09:07 pm      

Mercer, McDowell counties: School bus time limits in effect

PRINCETON — New time limits for school bus routes in West Virginia could impact several southern West Virginia school systems.

The new policy now in effect recommends one-way travel time for elementary school students of less than 30 minutes. The one-way route for middle school students isn’t to exceed 45 minutes, and high school students are to spend less than an hour one way on a school bus.

Locally, the proposed PikeView Middle School project could be impacted by the new school bus time limits, according to Don White, assistant school superintendent for Mercer County.

The Mercer County Board of Education has been offered $12.5 million in funding from the state School Building Authority to assist with the construction of the middle school project. If the new school is built, the existing Athens, Spanishburg, Oakvale and Lashmeet/Matoaka schools will be reconfigured into K-5 facilities, with grades 6 through 8 going to the new middle school.

“We are looking at and trying to determine routes now, and how it (the new state policy) would impact them,” White said. “We are aware of those recommended times. We are certainly very much aware of the recommendations.”

White said the school system’s transportation department is working on a study to determine school bus travel times for children who would be transported to the proposed middle school in PikeView.

White said the proposed PikeView Middle School is the only new school planned in Mercer County, and thus would be the only facility impacted by the new time recommendations.

While several new schools are currently planned or under construction in McDowell County, none of the projects are expected to be impacted by the new school bus time limits. Cook said the new Big Creek-Iaeger High School and the new Bradshaw Elementary were both originally proposed several years ago. The new law applies only to future bus routes prompted by new or consolidated schools or closings, an Associated Press report said Wednesday.

“That project has been going on for a long time,” Cook said of the 17 acre educational campus planned near Bradshaw. “So we are OK with all of those.”

Cook said future school construction projects that are proposed and developed in McDowell County would fall under the new school bus travel guidelines. Cook said most students being transported to the new Southside K-8 facility in War already meet the recommended state guidelines.

While there are remote locations across McDowell County where children may spend longer than the recommended time on a school bus, the numbers are low, according to Cook.

“I’ve seen a report or two in the time I’ve been here,” Cook said. “There might be a couple of kids who exceed those in spots. But it is like in the single digits.”

Cook said an example of a longer bus routes would include those students living along the state line of Virginia and West Virginia.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com