This petition is to acknowledge the need of bus service for children attending Peotone Elementary that live south of Corning Avenue in Peotone (Blaine, Garfield and Mill Streets). According to the State of Illinois Department of Transportation, bus service should be provided for any child who lives over 1.5 miles from Peotone Elementary and may also be provided for those living less than 1.5 miles when walking causes a hazard to the safety of the student. Such hazards include vehicular traffic, rail crossings and walking on or along a roadway (no continuous sidewalks). There currently are areas of Peotone that do receive bus service although they are less than the 1.5 miles in distance. Examples are children living in Ashburton and Mill Trace subdivisions as well as homes along Rathje Road. Students without bus service have to rely on parents or others to get them to school or to walk. This is extremely stressful on the parents as it can be a long and treacherous walk for all children, especially a child as young as six years old. This walk becomes more hazardous as the weather worsens. The lack of bus service also increases the number of cars on the streets. Currently, with vehicles being detoured from Peotone/Wilmington Road to Rathje Road, to Corning Avenue and on to West Street, the number of trucks passing thru is a major cause for concern for our young people who walk to school. Even without the detour, traffic in the morning and afternoon is quite heavy on Corning Avenue, causing a safety hazard as the child attempts to cross. There are no crossing guards for Corning Avenue, a major intersection for our children to walk (in any weather) and without formal walk zones (continuous sidewalks) on Blaine and Mill Street, this puts our grade school aged children in our streets unsupervised. The unique location of Blaine and Garfield Streets make a walk to Peotone Elementary an extended one. There is no direct route to the school. Depending on the location of the home on each street, the child must walk too far east (West Street) or too far west (Mill Street), then walk back to Conrad Street to proceed north to the school. Blaine, Garfield and Mill Streets have not been part of the busing system but we feel that was an oversight and should be corrected as soon as possible. Since Amsterdam turns into Blaine Street, we propose that the bus continues to pick up the children of the listed below in this petition on Blaine, Garfield and Mill Streets. We the undersigned parents of Peotone Elementary School request that the changes in the bus service be made for the attached listed children.

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