No school buses in Eastbridge? Must be a mistake.
This third school... Nothing is going to come easily, is it?
A couple of years ago, we realized Forest City severely underestimated the number of Stapleton children entering kindergarten in the next few years, and based on their projections, Denver Public Schools faced a huge overcrowding problem.
Luckily, we live in a community where we get sh*t done.
We bought our homes here so that our kids could walk to good- no, great- neighborhood schools. After all, that's the promise Forest City sold us on. So we came together and demanded a third school be built that year and we got 'er done.
Forest City had a site for a third school here in the Eastbridge neighborhood (many of us bought our homes in this location for precisely that reason.) The site, however, was contaminated and cleanup would not be done in time for a third school, so we Eastbridgers are living next to weed farms.
But Swigert-McAuliffe International School got built in a different location, has a wonderful Principal, an IB curriculum, and is ready to embrace students in two days.
Now, we learn that DPS has set up just three bus stops for Swigert-McAuliffe International School: one at Westerly Creek Elementary School, one at 34th & Alton, one at 31st and Geneva Street.
For me and everyone living in Eastbridge (south of MLK)here's what that means:
1. My neighbors who go to Westerly Creek can walk to the park right outside my house to catch the bus to school. I, however, must walk or drive my kindergartner almost a mile to Westerly Creek so that he can catch his bus to school.
2. alternatively, I can walk my kindergartner across the busy divided Martin Luther King Blvd during the morning commute to catch the bus on 31st. There are no stoplights or stop signs, no crosswalks, not even sidewalks.
For those living in the south end, the trip to the bus is just as long as the trip to school.
It's an easy fix: just add a bus stop in Eastbridge south of MLK. Call DPS Department of Transportation
Route Schedulers (720) 423-4609 / 4610 / 4611 / 4612. Tell them to add a bus stop in Eastbridge, where we won't have to walk our kids across a busy thoroughfare.
**UPDATE**
New bus stops added: 28th & Emporia, and 28th & Geneva St
Posts
and the South End! The stop at WCE is nearly as far from us as SMIS itself.
the Transportation Director's phone number is (720) 423-4602.
Update: done, moms! A bus stop has been added at 28th & Emporia.
Why don't y'all STOP complaining about driving your kids a mile to SMIS & instead walk your kids to their designated schools. That way, kids in the SMIS neighborhood can attend their rightful school. OMFG, wouldn't that be great for the parents who actually belong to SMIS.
Are there "designated" schools in Stapleton? I don't think so. I'm not even sure if there will be room for my kid at the closest school to us. And SMIS is NOT a neighborhood. Stapleton is. Swigert was built to accommodate the children of STAPLETON (and Park Hill, etc.), not solely for the children of North Central Park. What if I asked your family to stop coming to MY pool? Don't be ridiculous.
Anonymous, there is no designated school for any part of Stapleton. Any one of the three schools here could serve any resident of the neighborhood. As of now, the SMIS "neighborhood," aka Central Park West, is a pile of dirt under construction. That school belongs to the entire neighborhood, and actually even part of NE Park Hill. If you're too embarrassed to attach your name to your comments, you probably shouldn't post them online.