SAN YSIDRO, Calif. (KGTV) – As students in the South Bay returned to school Monday, a group of parents voiced their displeasure over the Sweetwater Union High School District’s transportation decisions.
The parents march along a San Ysidro street on Monday morning to call for change in light of the district’s elimination of several bus routes.
Dozens of bus stops were cut throughout the district to help with the district’s budget crisis.
With the elimination of routes, some students are having to walk several miles to school.
RELATED: LIST: Sweetwater District cuts bus routes
District officials said the cuts were only made after the completion of a safe sidewalk on Old Otay Mesa Road, which is the main path to San Ysidro High School.
“I feel like they are targeting us because they thought we wouldn’t speak up,” said Andrea Oropeza, a mother of a ninth grader at San Ysidro High.
Last week, numerous parents and student protested by walking the route in the heat.
They say they have more walkouts planned, which they say could cost the district thousands of dollars since each absent student costs $200.
Sweetwater officials maintain the cuts are necessary to combat the budget crisis they are in from years of fiscal mismanagement and a series of budget of shortfalls.
