DOWAGIAC — At the Dowagiac Union Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday night, three parents raised safety concerns regarding their children’s transportation to and from school.

Bonnie Swan has a daughter who attends Dowagiac Middle School and was the first public comment of the meeting. Swan’s home is located within a radius set by the district that does not requires her daughter to be picked up by a bus.

Swan said her daughter has to cross County Line road and Napier road, which have speed limits of 55 miles per hour.

Swan said in the morning, Scott Wood, the transportation supervisor, agreed to have a bus pick up her daughter before school at 5:30 a.m., because it was dark. During the afternoon, Swan struggles to pick up her daughter from school because of health issues. Swan said she needs to start a new medication, but is unable to operate a vehicle while on the medication.

In order to help find a way for her daughter to get safely home from school, Swan said she went to the Michigan State Police, who sent out an officer to investigate the safety of her daughter walking on County Line road.

“I come in front of you to solve the issue so that we can get this settled here and the police don’t have to investigate into it,” Swan said. “If [Scott] thinks it’s unsafe and he picks her up in the morning, I think it’s unsafe in the afternoon.”

Superintendent Jonathan Whan said the process in place establishes different stops for kindergarten through fifth grade students than stops for students in sixth through twelfth grade based on age.

“It’s not a driver issue, we actually did start the season full,” Whan said. “It is timing issues and working within the policies and procedures set by the board of travel distance and walk distance.”

Whan said a two-mile walking radius is set by the state, but as a district, the board has limited that radius to a shorter distance through administrative regulations and the district’s transportation handbook. The Michigan State Police also establishes driving conditions and rules to decide if there are unfit walking conditions in place.

“As Dowagiac School, as a community, as all of us, isn’t that our point to keep our kids safe?” Swan asked the board.

The board said they will evaluate the situation and look through letters Swan provided.

Mackenzie Mroczek and Jami Chavez both have children attending an elementary school in Dowagiac Union Schools and started a petition to get a bus stop changed. Both families live in a subdivision located behind Hale’s True Value Hardware. Their children’s bus stop is located in the business’s parking lot.

Before the start of this school year, both parents got a postcard saying where their bus stop would be located. They contacted Wood to ask about getting it moved and he had different reasons for why the stop could not be moved.

“We live in an area that is highly traveled,” Mroczek said. “They get dropped off right at 4 p.m. which for Hale’s is one of their busiest time of the day.”

Mroczek and Chavez wrote up a petition and asked their neighbors if they agreed the location of the bus stop was unsafe. The petition garnered a list of signatures.

“We aren’t asking for them to be dropped off at the house,” Chavez. “We are asking them to come into the neighborhood. You can drop them off at the back of the neighborhood.”

Mroczek said there is a lack of sidewalk on her children’s walk home and cars sometimes whip around the corner without looking out for children. Mackenzie Mroczek

Whan said Hale’s True Value Hardware has been used as a bus stop location for years. Last year, Wood added the elementary stop even though the area it served was located within the walking radius.

“I commend them,” Whan said. “They came with a concerned problem and came with a request for a potential solution which is how we solve problems in the world.”