To manage later start times, Lower Merion has proposed stopping busing for 500 kids. Parents are angry.

High schoolers in the Lower Merion School District will be able to sleep a little later this fall, when their start times shift from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. But a tradeoff has emerged: Hundreds of them may now have to walk to school.

A plan to expand the walk zone for Lower Merion High School from 1 to 1.5 miles because of a bus driver shortage has provoked outrage from parents, who say they were never informed of the potential fallout from the long-running debate around changing school start times, and are accusing the district of endangering children.

As a result, district officials said Wednesday that they are close to making a new announcement about the plan, which could affect 500 students and was announced earlier this year as necessary to accommodate the new schedule.

In order to push high school later, Lower Merion is also shifting middle and elementary school schedules so buses can run staggered routes. The district compressed the time for routes to ensure that no school has to start too early or late.

Lower Merion is rolling out another change this fall, full-day kindergarten, which also complicates busing, with more students expected to be riding buses at the same time rather than split between half-day programs.

The debate reflects the web of logistics in shifting school schedules, even in a wealthy district: Lower Merion officials say it’s not a matter of money, but an ongoing bus driver shortage that prevents the district from simply adding more routes.

“There just aren’t enough drivers to go around,” Superintendent Steve Yanni said at a school board meeting last month. “I know some people don’t like to hear this, but Lower Merion is not unique.” He said that despite offering $4,000 bonuses and paying “comparable” rates to other districts, the district currently has 12 driver vacancies and expects it will need to hire 20 drivers this fall. (The shortage is ”one of the things that keeps me up at night,” Yanni said, citing an average bus driver age of 59.75.)

But parents say the new walk zone isn’t just far, but also unsafe — forcing children on heavily trafficked routes with speeding drivers. They’re demanding the district ask the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to evaluate whether routes in the proposed zone are hazardous. (The district’s second high school, Harriton High School, has guaranteed busing because of a hazardous route designation.)

“I don’t want to be the parent that gets a call from the ER that my son is dead or injured,” said Rob Brothers, who has a son in fifth grade who will be attending Lower Merion High School in a few years and lives 1.3 miles from the school, in the newly expanded walk zone.

A longtime cyclist, Brothers “laughed” at a suggestion from the district that kids could bike to school, saying Lower Merion Township lacks safe biking infrastructure. “I’ve been cycling for 35 years, and I’m scared to get on the roads,” he said in an interview.

Brothers is among a group of parents who have organized through social media in opposition to the expanded walk zone — researching pedestrian accidents and brainstorming possible alternatives, such as consolidating bus stops or working with third-party providers. They’ve also been calling the state transportation department and meeting with township officials.

Numerous parents spoke at last month’s school board meeting, pressing the district to reconsider the plan.

Alan Promer, who has a 10th grader at Lower Merion High School, told the board he had taken video while walking various routes with “obviously unsafe” locations.

It’s “really infuriating that I and other parents are doing things like that,” Promer said. “Parents now have to clean up your mess.” Other parents spoke of long walks in poor weather conditions — “No umbrella can keep a person and their backpack dry for a 34-plus-minute walk,” one father told the board — and kids lugging heavy sports bags or musical instruments, potentially in the dark. (While late activity buses aren’t being eliminated, timing and routes are still in flux, given the districtwide schedule changes, said district spokesperson Amy Buckman.)

Yanni told parents during the Feb. 20 meeting that the district was working with PennDot and might change the plan as a result. In a letter to families Wednesday, Yanni said he anticipated receiving “valuable information” from the agency “within the next two weeks.”

“This assessment, and other facets of transportation we are exploring, will play a significant role in determining the final decision about expanding the high school walk zone, including whether it will remain at 1.5 miles for next year,” Yanni said.

The district has noted other districts in the area with 1.5-mile walk zones, including Haverford, West Chester, and Marple Newtown.

Craig Timberlake, father of a recent Lower Merion High School graduate and a current sophomore, is grateful for new attention to the issue of walkability. Timberlake lives about 1.2 miles from the high school; his older son began walking there during the pandemic, wanting to avoid an enclosed bus. He kept up the habit, joined last year by his younger brother, who continues to walk.

Although Timberlake doesn’t think the expanded walk zone is necessarily too far — acknowledging that his younger son isn’t carrying added equipment — he is concerned about safety. His older son previously drew a map of his walking route, which he titled “The Treacherous Trail of Treachery” and annotated with comments. (”I’m gonna die here one of these days,” reads an arrow pointing to one crosswalk.)

“I worry every day,” said Timberlake, who lives in Ardmore and noted the intersection of Church Road and Lancaster Avenue, half a mile from the high school: “I don’t know how it could be much more hostile to pedestrians.” Other parents cited Montgomery Avenue as a concern.

Some parents who pressed the district for later start times are upset the initiative is being pitted against busing.

Although the advocacy around shifting start times and getting more sleep was “for the wellness and safety of our kids,” said Kim Lipetz, a proponent of the new schedule, “the danger in some of these walking routes ... is, to me, a bigger danger.” Lipetz has two sons at Lower Merion High and lives in the expanded walk zone, even though their route is actually 1.7 miles; Lipetz said the way the district has drawn the zone is bigger than 1.5 miles, based on how it’s calculating distance to the school property, rather than the school building.

Lipetz anticipates driving her sons on days she can — noting the inequity for parents who can’t do the same. (Students’ ability to drive to school is also limited; Lower Merion High, which has 1,700 students, has about 65 student parking spaces.)

Parents will not accept the expanded walk zone without a safety study, said Lipetz — who questioned whether the existing zone could also be deemed hazardous.

“Then they’re in a bind,” she said.