Warren County homeowners react to new bus stops

WCPS responds

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Imagine looking out your window to see children hanging out in your yard.

That’s what one Bowling Green woman woke up to this week.

Valarie Phelps has lived in her cul-de-sac off of Louisville Road for the last 12 years. 

Since she moved there, the stop sign at the corner of her yard has acted as a Warren County Public Schools bus stop for a small group of children.

But this school year, Phelps says she was surprised to see an actual WCPS School bus stop sign in her lawn.

Since the news school year began Wednesday, Phelps says she’s seen up to half a dozen kids and their parents standing in her lawn, awaiting bus pickup.

She says that while she and her pups are kid friendly, she and other people on Facebook are sharing their concerns about children gathering in homeowners’ yards… without warning.

“Just kind of give me a little more preparation that you’re putting all these kids in a location which is my house,” Phelps expressed.

News 40 spoke with WPCS whose Transportation Director says putting signs into people’s yards is not their policy.

The district sent us this statement saying they encourage students to gather near the bus stop signs: not in the middle of people’s yards or personal property. 

“It is the policy of the Warren County Schools’ Transportation Department to place all of the bus route stop signs in the corner of the yard, in the right-of-way.  If a sign is near a stop sign, transportation personnel have placed the sign 30 feet back from the stop sign.  We encourage all students to gather at or near the location of the bus route stop signs and not in the middle of someone’s yard or their personal property.” – Lauren Thurmond, Communications Coordinator.