KATY, Texas – Parents in one Katy ISD neighborhood are concerned about the route their children might have to use to walk to school.
The Highland Park subdivision is 1 mile or less from the newly built Tays Junior High School, which means the district does not have to provide bus transportation for students.
The district says it has created a designated safe route for students from Falcon Landing Boulevard, to Spring Green Boulevard, to Hawk’s Prairie Boulevard, where the school is located.
From the edge of the Highland Park subdivision the route is 1.7 miles with all the turns and takes an estimated 33 minutes to walk.
The distance is even greater for students who live deeper within the subdivision.
The route includes four intersections, one with a stop light, two with four-way stop signs and one intersection that will require a crossing guard.
Parents are concerned about morning rush hour traffic along the route, which starts right across from Tompkins High School.
“You're going to have parents who are late for work and you're going to have high-schoolers driving,” said parent Maria Alessio. “It’s just an accident waiting to happen and when it happens it will be too late.”
Parents are also concerned about ever-changing weather conditions during the more than half-hour walk.
“It has been raining very hard lately, and sometimes it’s too hot for them to walk that distance,” said parent Elena Lara.
The district is encouraging families to carpool on days when there is inclement weather.
District spokesperson Maria DiPetta says there is another walking route to get to the school, from Falcon Landing Boulevard, to Gaston Road, to Hawk’s Prairie Boulevard, but she is warning students not to take that route.
Part of the route does not have a sidewalk and it is not considered a designated safe route.
But parents say they won’t even let their children take the designated safe route because of the distance and its location along busy streets.
“We're just thinking how we are going to do this,” Lara said. Some parents are getting together to talk about carpooling.”
Parents can appeal the issue by filing a grievance with the district. Some parents tell Channel 2 they do plan to file that grievance.