THURSDAY
July 23, 2015 • 75¢
FIGHTING ‘BATTLE OF THE BIG BUTTS’ Yorkville football linemen compete at West Aurora / 16
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Board OKs changes to bus routes By KATHY FARREN news@kendallcountynow.com
Ribs on the River T
he city of Yorkville and the Yorkville Area Chamber of Commerce played host to the city’s annual “Ribs on the River” event Friday and Saturday in Riverfront Park along the banks of the Fox River. The event featured live music and plenty of freshly grilled ribs and homebrewed craft beers. TOP: Caden Kratsch (right) of Montgomery performs a Beatles song backed up by JD Kostyk during performances by Yorkville Performing Arts Center at Ribs on the River. ABOVE: Ribs on the River competitor Anthony Barry of Smokin Butts BBQ starts to pull apart the pig for his pulled pork sandwich Saturday in Yorkville. LEFT: Jean Cardwell of Naperville enjoys her ribs Saturday in downtown Yorkville. Photos by Eric Miller emiller@shawmedia.com
COUNTYWIDE
Kendall County Fair opens soon Truck and tractor pulls, carnival rides among activities / Inside
Vol. 151, No. 30 • 3 sections
Septran school buses will operate fewer routes and make fewer stops in the Yorkville School District this fall thanks to changes approved Monday by the Board of Education. The changes will keep the maximum walk from home to their bus stop to a quarter-mile or less for students in kindergarten to sixth grade and to a halfmile or less for middle school and high school students, according to Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Dean Romano. He estimated the savings to the district at more than $2.5 million per year. Total bus routes will be reduced from 43 double-tier (separate runs for elementary and secondary start times) and nine single-tier routes to 36 double-tier and nine single-tier routes. The total number of stops will be reduced 36.8 percent from 1,254 to 793. As an example, last year 23 bus routes with a total of 355 stops served Yorkville High School. Next year, that will be reduced to 203 stops. District bus routes were reviewed by a consultant, Transfinder Professional Services, and use the transportation “Decision Tree” adopted earlier by the board. The “Decision Tree” helps determine whether students are eligible for bus transportation based on the distance from their home to their school and whether they would have to walk in hazardous areas or cross at dangerous intersections, such as on busy highways. The goal of the transportation review was to have buses running at 60 to 80 percent of capacity at the elementary level and 60 to 70 percent of capacity at the secondary level. In some cases, stops with low ridership were moved to adjacent routes. Some stops were moved from their
past location to limit the number of students waiting at each stop to no more than 20 and, when possible, to keep stops at intersections. The average route time districtwide will be 27.8 minutes and the average maximum route time is 47.3 minutes, Romano reported to the board. Because of the substantial number of changes under the new system, he also said that no changes will be made in the new routes during the first two weeks of school. According to information presented to the board, families will be notified soon of the tentative bus stops planned for the new school year. Individual stop assignments will be available for parents via their online Home Access Center in E-School. Parents will be notified of when they can view their stop assignment online via email as soon as it becomes available. District administrators will be able to modify the routes and stops if necessary, based on final enrollment figures.
Windette Ridge bus question
In response to a petition by several families in the Windette Ridge subdivision on the south side of Yorkville for bus transportation to the Yorkville Middle School, Romano proposed a solution. All but one of the families asking for the bus service lives less than a mile and a half from the school, meaning the district would not be required to provide transportation. However, Romano said for these students to get to school in under one and a half miles they have to use a walking path in the subdivision that is sometimes not cleared in the winter. He suggested that a bus stop be set up at the one home that is 1.54 miles from the Middle School and allow students from the other nearby homes to use that stop in winter, from November through March.