Jerome School District will provide bussing services to preschools and daycares for another year

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Glenda Cestle is the co-owner of Glenda’s Daycare in Jerome. She cares for almost 20 kids and five of them are after school kids who are only in preschool or kindergarten.

“They were expecting them to walk the several block here to the daycare and these kids are 5 years old, it’s not safe,” said Cestle.

This issue first came up last month when I spoke to Jerome School District’s Superintendent then -- he said he would look into addressing the bussing concerns. Now he says he was able to convince the school board to provide services to local daycares and preschools for at least one more year.

“We ended up coming up with, I think, some pretty great solutions all around. After we did the initial routing, we had busses going proximal to the daycares that can pickup and drop-off close enough to where the employees can pick them up and be safe,” said Johnson. “But it’s still on our routes where we can be responsible to our employees and our taxpayers.”

According to Superintendent Brent Johnson, kids will no longer have to walk up to a mile and a half from school. They’ll catch the bus and only have to walk a block or two after getting dropped off.

And as far as the plan for after this year:

“We’re going to spend this whole year looking for solutions and how we will move forward and how to use funds and provide safe and consistent transportation to our city long term,” said Johnson.

As for local daycare centers like Glenda’s, she says they’re grateful for the change.

“The superintendent, he came in the middle of the summer, and he got involved right away and he’s trying to find solutions. But I think the school board needs to be a little more sensitive to what we need to do for our kids.”

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