vehicle emissions? -that will help melt the snow. I walked to school and home- uphill both ways.

Is true that Julian Stolz when making a motion to restore transportation to Willow Lane also demanded paying for webcasting of meetings and spending the fund ballance all the way down to implement one of the Donches budgets? Restoring transportation might have been 1 thing, tying it to other imprudent adventures would be quite another.

Stolz did tie $10,000 for two years of webcasting to his support of busing, yes. And he made an example of the Catasauqua School District which he reported has but $50,000 in its fund balance.

I have to say the schools always worry about preditors well that would make the safety for the chidren on Willow Lane in jeoperdy unless the school is going to hire crossing guards and other responsible adults to patrol Willow Lane or mayby even more costly pay state or the Local Police depts. to be on Patrol on Willow Lane.The schools always say protect your children well where is the safety and protection with their choice of no bussing for Willow Lane?If the School District does stop bussing on that road than the State needs to make the School District fully responsible for the childrens safety when going to and from school.

Julian does not have the kids in mind. He knows how much this upsets some of you and he is playing with your emotions. Please visit any board meeting and you will see how little he cares about our kids and how much he does care about his political career!! I actually went out and drove a typical walk to school yesterday aand I am not sure what neighborhood is 1.5 miles away from Willow???? I live 1.5 miles from Willow and I am a Shoemaker school.

This is all a plan by our School board to get us all up in arms about this ( and we should be ) BUT it doesn't do jack $*&@ about the real problem in east penn school district. So they pass the budget with another tax increase and use of Surplus, so in reality it wasn't a 1.6% increase when your using millions from the reserve. Everyone wake up, in a couple of years you are not going to believe what happens to your taxes. And don't hold your breath on HB 1776. That wold be a huge mistake econmy wise for us. It would be great for homeowners, but after a couple of years after all the business's flee your house prices will plummet. Lets fix the spending issue. And stop with the its a mandate crap. Start your big teacher unions lobbying just like they lobby for your big fat pensions.

For us the distance is not an issue, crossing the road at the corner of Mill Creek and Sauerkraut is the issue. I jog and bike on the path around the school and the drivers to/from work are an issue - not paying attention and going to fast at times. Safety MUST BE addressed.

They will never walk. The pansy parents will all drive their kids to school. A huge number of parents drive the kids to school already even though busing is provided.

None of the above - Shouldnt be a one size fits all. Every neighborhood should be evaluated for safe routes. If I have to say a 'within number'.. An adult can walk 1.5 miles in 20 minutes. I'd say 1.25 miles would be a cap for a kid with parent or a 'walking bus'. But again, every neighborhood is different. This is assuming a straight line path to the school. It shouldnt be X amount away from school but X length of the walking route.

you could have your police force patrol...Oh yeah I forgot.

I am looking at the poll on the Patch, and so far 58% of people who responded picked a reasonable walking distance that was LESS than 1.5 mile. Basically, something like one mile (or much less) is winning by a landslide. Trust me, if these children had collective bargaining rights, they would not have to walk 1.5 miles to school. The school board is most responsive to the needs of the unions and they respond to collective bargaining. If the students had a union and collective bargaining rights, they would not be walking 1.5 miles to school. Sad to say, but completely true.

children yrs ago walked to n from school they survived as long as there is crossing guards I see no problem...parents can drop off n pick up also if that need be...Allot live close enough that every area for any school in EP should have them walking....

with all due respect; who will "volunteer" for the crossing guard job??? LOL

Diane, You make a very good point, but are there any new dangers that didn't really factor in years ago? Some have mentioned predators...do you think this is a concern?

Listen, I'm from Philly. I walked to school for 12 years. The streets are much more busy there, and I can count on 1 hand the number of accidents that have happened with students in the 15 years since I've graduated. The overprotective coddling and oversensitivity with kids today has to stop. Like Governor Rendell says, a nation of wusses.

Tommy this area is NOTHING like Philly, and maybe we wouldn't be in the position we are in if it wasn't for Slick Rendell sucking all of our tax money to support his lovely Philadelphia. I for one am proud to live here, and it must be an ok place if you moved here from Phila.

Everyone is missing the point, we are talking,or I should say that the school board has us talking about 60,000 dollars. Nothing has been said about needing another 1 million dollars plus for the increase in salaries and pensions for the upcoming school year. Priorities and not the childrens safety by the look of the budget. Rediculous to offer this and not have a plan other than no bussing. really need a change in the school board. when the budget is consumed by wages and salaries we need to look there first. This is not a knock on teachers its a we need to look at the total operation of the school district. how about an outside janitor service that isn't in the union ???? whatever happaned to that discussion. Its not about the 60 grand...much much bigger problem

Robert, you are completely correct. We have a school budget of $125,000,000.00 and the idea of saving money by making an elementary student walk is just a tiny drop in the bucket ($60k). Outsourcing the custodians would save so much more money, but Dr. Seidenberger has made it clear that he is completely against saving money by outsourcing and reducing the amount we pay to clean the floors. Again, the janitors are union workers, so he won't touch that area! He has stated that these are good paying jobs, and (paraphrasing) he is against saving money by having the floors cleaned in a cheaper way like outsourcing which would eliminate these good paying janitor jobs. It comes down to looking out for the unions before the kids ( and kids don't have collective bargaining rights). So, the unions and custodians are more powerful that the parents realize, and so the school board will choose and be cheerful about amking kids walk 1.5 miles to school, but the 83 janitors that we have on staff, each of them are immuned from any cuts or even a reduction in workforce according to their newly renewed contract with the Teamster's Union and the school board.

The thing the interests me most here is the age of the children. Children in the 5 to ten year old bracket must be monitored or walked by hand to school. That is called parenting. I do think that cuts to the school budget, of which 65% or so is salaries and retirement benefits would better serve the community being cut than having students this young walk to school. 65% of the budget is just too much for these categories.

such a shame that MOST of the school board picks the jobs over the kids safety. I didn't realize that we were paying taxes to the school district to keep people gainfully employed. Remember its all about the children....what a load of crap. I can't wait to see what they are going to cut next to protect there union jobs. I know air conditioning, nope never mind I am sure that is in the union contract to provide a cool working atmosphere.

So this is going a bit far back and some of you on here may not even remember this. When I attended Shoemaker School we had crossing guards. It was a bunch of walkers that signed up to be crossing guards. We were organized by a teacher and given our assignments. The roads that were not as heavily traveled the kids could be by themselves, the busier streets we had an adult with us. We had cool bright orange strap thingy’s with a Badge and a flag on the end of a pole that of course said STOP. We would have one foot on the sidewalk and one in the street and the flag was extended into the roadway. There would be a student on either side of the street. If the intersection has four stop signs we would have four kids and each one did a double duty. The fifth grade students would be the crossing guards. I remember when we were finally able to be crossing guards this was really "Cool" for us. It not only teaches the kids to be responsible but the kids also feel good about themselves.

yeah we had that at Jefferson too, the problem is I am sure it isn't in the contract for the teachers to do that.
To have : Carl, Diescher, Radar, Christoff, Windt, Russo, Gibb, Koltisko, Miller teaching our kids now. They arrived at school with sport coat, Tie, Dresses. Now those were some teachers that should have made the big $$$$$'s Not that there isn't good teachers now but those teachers went above and beyond. Very fond memory's now....LOL wait we can take the 60,000 we saved and hire one new teacher to do that job. NO that wouldn't work because it would cost much more than 60 grand with salary and benefits.

Emmaus Mom, I dropped off and picked my son off at jefferson for 4 years and never once did I see a "school teacher" off of school property. and as far as Emmaus police very rarely getting out of there cars to help, thats just not true. Maybe if the Emmaus Police who put there life on the line everyday made as much as the janitors at the EPSD they could do more. As far as me demonizing union's they are going to bankrupt this country.

My facts are correct.
Damn right I wouldn't turn it down..... who in this economy would turn down a union janitor job $$$$$ cha ching. I am not faulting the janiotors for having the job, I am faulting the school board or superintendant or whoevers job it is to think out of the box to make sure there is enough money to PROPERLY educate and keep our children safe while not constantly raising taxes. how much is the pension contribution going up in 2014 ???? just wait to people see that number.
And as far as teachers being off the property in my day thats exactly what would happen, Mr Radar, Diescher, Carl and a couple of other teachers walked the area. god forbid there asked to do something thats not in there contract. All I am saying is it was a totally different breed of teacher back then.

Ok Lets settle this argument. We agree to have crossing guards at the intersections needed. These crossing guards shall be paid the same salary as the janitors, be certified and shall be unionized. This is for the safety of the children. Now how many of the parents would agree to this and if the EPSD Board really cared for the safety of the walking children, they would agree as well? Come on parents speak up and put your money where your mouth is. I bet I hear silence. The fact that the safety of children are a concerned as being crossing guards is pure BS. I grew up being one of this guards and sure encouraged me to be responsible. Maybe its time that some of the parents volunteer their time as a crossing guard rather than sucking down their starbucks coffee shooting the sh*&, with the other parents while standing at corner waiting for their kid to get off the bus or burning valuable petrol in their heated or air conditioned car. God I pray that it does not rain or your child may melt like the witch in the wizard of oz. The EPSD is not a taxi service or a baby sitting service and on my dime, I am glad the EPSD board is doing this. Wait until funding is cut completely for busing for the entire state. Its coming and not too soon.

Well said Mike! Unfortunately the fluorescent vests would clash with their outfits and standing out on a street corner is beneath most of the folks in those neighborhoods. They care about the safely of their children when they can sit inside their homes and complain on blogs like this or call offices (schools district, township, bus company etc.) on the phone and demand action. However, when the rubber hits the road they're too lasy to get off their butts and do something proactive about the situation. Besides, they pay an lot of taxes and are entitled to these services that someone (anyone) else must provide for them.

Are you guys really seeing the big picture? BIG PICTURE....our school board is extremely friendly to organized labor and the labor unions. The Teamster Unions get rich by entering into these contracts like for the janitors. The school board chooses to save money and focus on cutting spending on transportation that affects students and parents, but protects the money that goes to the organized labor union members. Have you read the contract for the Teamsters? East Penn MUST have 83 custodians which are Teamster union members, and can not reduce the workforce even if there is a decline in student size. Even if a janitor retires, they can't even reduce to less than 83 janitors even by attrition. Could we get by with 82 or 81 custodians? Pretty likely. But, the school bus drivers are not Teamster union members, so that is where the cuts must occur. If the school bus drivers were Teamsters, we would not be having this conversation.

Truth seeker, I see your point. I phrased that completely wrong. Thank you. However, from what I read from the Janitor contract, there is a guarantee for 83 janitorial jobs through the Teamster's union. We can not go under 83 janitors even in bad economic times, and even if we have fewer students, and even if one retires. So, the Teamster jobs for the janitors are guaranteed which are a direct contract between the school board and the Teamsters. And, if there are cost reductions it can not be done there. However, these bus driver jobs, well they involve First Student and obviously not protected in the same way. The school board is very interested in cutting down with costs when it involves transportation from what I have seen and heard at board meetings. However, if you bring up one of these 83 Teamster janitorial jobs, Dr. Seidenberger is not receptive at all to ideas like that.

Seriousthinking- if you are saying that there are many parents who volunteer their time, then get off your high horse and start a crossing guard volunteer group and a safety cadet program for the fifth and sixth graders. Its great that parents have the time to help the teachers but its time that parents share that same same sentiment and enthusiasm with reducing the overall expenses of all school district functions. I am sure their are retired police officers, housewives and former teachers who would not mind being teachers of individual responsibility, something many parents take for granted that teachers teach in a normal day to day classroom activities. While in the classroom, why not help the teachers teach about safety to the children for walking home from school, talking to strangers, buddy system, carrying whistles etc and of course PA Megans List of child predators who live near the school. ( you better look) By the way thanks for calling me an Einstein because science is my favorite subject.

Sorry Michael, Im too busy drinking my Starbucks and BSing to get off my high horse.

People are concerned about snow and rain??? REALLY??? I walked to school living in the Syracuse NY area...130 inches of snow a year, and more rainy than Seattle. Get a warm coat and an umbrella!

My kids go to Wescosville, and really, I would welcome walking to Wescosville if some sidewalks were put in along Brookside Rd. Of course half the traffic on Brookside Rd at the beginning of the school day is already parents who are dropping off their kids rather than letting them ride the bus, so I can only imagine what it would be like if there was *walking* added into the mix.

One school I went to as a child bussed children *to* school in the morning when there was more traffic on the streets with people driving to work, but then had kids walk home in the afternoon. This is one compromise that might be considered.