District 118 Board Meeting Brings Separate Busing Concerns

Two of the public speakers at Wednesday (Aug 23rd) evening’s Danville District 118 Board meeting brought about concerns involving busing.  One was a driver herself, Jennifer Hoskins.  She stated that with all of the extreme heat this week, students riding unairconditioned buses were getting off the bus completely drenched in sweat; and then one passed out before becoming sick.

Hoskins says, if school can be called off for extreme cold, it can also be called off for extreme heat; which District 118 did do on Thursday, August 24th.

(1st Picture) School bus driver Jennifer Hoskins talks about the week’s extremely hot conditions on the buses.  (Last Picture) Danville resident Carolyn Burke talks about a lost kindergarten child, let off a bus at the wrong location, who came to her home for help.

AUDIO: And Monday my last student, he was completely drenched from his head; his shirt and his pants were completely soaked.  And then today my monitor called me to tell me that we had a student that had passed out on the bus, and when he awoke he had vomited.  It’s too hot.  It’s uncalled for.

Another public speaker was Carolyn Burke, who lives on North Gilbert.  She said that on the first day of school, a kindergartener was let off the bus where he should not have been, and came to her front door while she was mowing the lawn asking for help.  She contacted the police, and his mother eventually picked him up.  Burke says she’s convinced she was put outside mowing the lawn to be there for this child.

AUDIO: We see on television all the time about children that are kidnapped.  The high school children have IDs; there needs, every child in this school district anywhere, needs contact information to keep them safe.

Assistant Superintendent John Hart says all District 118 Pre-K through 1st graders do indeed have special ID tags on their book bags.

AUDIO: And it tells what bus they ride, and their name and their address.  So that information is on every student’s pre-K through first grade book bag.  And I’ve seen them made in every building, and they are there.

Hart says the lost student’s book bag was checked the next day and the ID tag was on it; and that most likely it was overlooked.