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PREVIOUSLY: Fortuna Union High School’s Superintendent Says It’s Too Dangerous for School Buses to Travel Through the Highway 36 Landslide Area; Bridgeville Parents Are Urging Him to Reconsider

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After hearing from a group of frustrated parents at last night’s Fortuna Union High School District (FUHSD) board meeting, Superintendent Clint Duey is looking into a reimbursement plan to help Bridgeville families cover the cost of taking their kids to school. 

The reimbursement plan was offered as a sort of compromise instead of reinstating the school bus route to Bridgeville, which was suspended last year after a major landslide shut down Highway 36 at Grizzly Creek. The highway has been open to one-way controlled traffic for a little more than a year, but Duey has refused to reinstate the route out of safety concerns. 

“We understand that this is a difficult situation for parents, but the Fortuna Union High School District places student safety as its highest priority and will not compromise on this stance,” Duey wrote in an emailed statement to the Outpost. “The district maintains that transporting students through the affected slide area is unsafe. At this time, the Fortuna Union High School District is not allowing any [of its] vehicles to travel through the area affected by the slide.

Duey added that “each board member stated they opposed driving a bus through the slide area.”

Caltrans has acknowledged the district’s concerns about Highway 36, but maintains, “If a Caltrans highway is open, it’s been deemed safe for travel.”

The details of the reimbursement plan will be worked out in the coming weeks, after district staff determine the cost of running a bus on the 14-mile stretch between the Riverside Park bus stop, located on the west side of the slide area, and Bridgeville. Staff are proposing the following formula: (one-way distance × four segments per day × 180 school days) × rate set by FUHSD Board of Trustees  = annual reimbursement.

“For each student, we have calculated the one-way distance from their primary residence to the designated bus turnaround point at Riverside [Park] Road,” a report in the agenda packet explains. “Students who live beyond the historical turnaround at Bridgeville have had mileage calculated from the traditional turnaround location to the new stop at Riverside [Park] Road. … As students require transportation to school in the morning and from school in the afternoon, the calculation is based on four one-way segments per day (two full round trips).”

The report notes that the board has “unilateral discretion to choose any rate they feel appropriate” as long as it doesn’t exceed the cost of running the bus out to Bridgeville.

“It is important to emphasize that this proposal does not constitute a permanent policy change or a blanket entitlement,” the report continues. “It is an exceptional measure, evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and intended to support families only so long as the designated bus route remains unsafe for District equipment.”

Duey is expected to present the reimbursement plan to the school board at its next meeting on Oct. 13.

Sherry Poundstone, who has two teenagers enrolled in the FUHSD, told the Outpost that she was disappointed in the outcome of the meeting. “Nothing changed except we now know the entire board is afraid of [Highway] 36 and is unanimous with Duey,” she wrote via email. “Another month of carrying this burden. Looking at selling what we can for fuel money because our savings are now gone.”

She accused the school district of discriminating against rural families and asked how the district can justify transporting student athletes in buses over Last Chance Grade on Highway 101, but not Highway 36.

“The board is FINE with ALL of their sports teams traveling the three-mile-long Last Chance Grade for a GAME, but not a 6/10 of a mile stretch for education,” she wrote. “Football, boys soccer and girls soccer have ALREADY had games this school year in Crescent City. The board absolutely ignored those facts and didn’t even discuss a van as an alternative [for Bridgeville students]. It was 100% NO on any transportation east of the slide.”

Kami Forester, another Bridgeville-area parent, was also at last night’s meeting. While her children are still in elementary and middle school, she felt it was important to advocate for their future and for other rural students. 

“This slide [has been] a hindrance for all of us, but it’s really, really impacted our kids,” Forester said during a phone interview this afternoon. “I didn’t really realize how bad it was until last night, when I got to hear a lot of voices from our community.”

“One of them that really resonated with me was a girl who’s in high school, and she doesn’t have transportation to get to high school,” she continued. “I think she said she was in color guard, and said she hasn’t been able to wear her uniform in a year. … She was saying how depressed she has gotten, and stressed out as well because she can see the burden of the transportation with her parents. … Their job is just to do school; they shouldn’t have to worry about these stresses that we do as parents or adults.”

Forester encouraged the district to consider other options. She floated the idea of using one of the white vans the district uses to transport student athletes to pick up Bridgeville students instead of a full-length school bus.

“The board [has said] the bus isn’t able to turn around anywhere safely on Highway 36 past Riverside Road, because there’s a double yellow line, which is true on a state highway,” she said. “That’s totally understandable, but there are … great pullout spots that have broken yellow lines that are before the slide. … Maybe we can get a little bit closer it would help.”

Still, Forester felt the proposed reimbursement plan was a “small step in the right direction.”