Students at Holy Cross School who live less than 15 minutes away are spending up to 90 minutes on a bus every single day — and that's a one-way ride. Buses leave Holy Cross between 2:45 and 2:55 PM, yet children aren't arriving home until 4:20. And in the morning, the ordeal starts all over again: children endure equally long rides, often arriving at school late.

That's three hours or more of their day lost to inefficient routing or driver shortage, before they've had a single chance to learn or rest.

This isn't just an inconvenience. Research published in the American Journal of Education shows that excessive commute times lead to decreased academic performance and higher stress levels in children. When our kids spend a significant portion of their day crammed into an overcrowded bus — arriving at school already worn down — they're not just uncomfortable, they're being set up to struggle in the classroom.

The burden doesn't end with the children. Parents are forced to choose between leaving their kids on an unreasonably long bus ride or arranging — and often paying for — alternative transportation. For working parents especially, this means leaving work early or absorbing the cost of aftercare that wouldn't otherwise be necessary.

What makes this especially frustrating is that this is not a new problem. Holy Cross families have been raising these concerns for years — only to be dismissed or told that the current routes are simply the best that can be done.

The Perkiomen Valley School District (PVSD) has the opportunity to fix this before the 2026-27 school year begins. Solutions exist: adding additional buses or vans, spreading out children across other busses, and redrawing route maps to eliminate unnecessary detours and backtracking. These are solvable problems — what's needed is the will to solve them.

We are calling on PVSD Transportation Director Mr. Joseph Fabrizio, the PVSD Board of School Directors, the STA Bus Company, and STA Terminal Manager Ms. Michele Cuthbertson to work together to redesign these routes and prioritize our children's well-being before the start of next school year.

Please sign this petition and send a clear message: our kids' time, health, and academic success matter — and so does the time and financial burden placed on the families who support them.

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Your answers to the questions at right will help us show PVSD and STA the full scope of this problem — by the numbers, across every route affected.