CINCINNATI —

For high school students at Aiken High School, the days of catching the bus home right after school and in front of the building are a thing of the past.

With the elimination of XTRA bus routes that were used exclusively for students and took them directly to and from school, Aiken students now have to walk to the corner of Hamilton and Belmont avenues to catch city buses on their regular routes.

WLWT was at dismissal Wednesday and watched as groups of students made their way to the bus stop, crowding onto the sidewalk by Grace Episcopal Church.

Aiken Principal Lisa Votaw was helping supervise students Wednesday afternoon, along with a crossing guard -- a new addition and a school resource officer who splits his time between several schools.

"Just trying to keep our babies safe. It's not the optimal position, but all we can do is what we can do and try to be preemptive and proactive to try to keep the kids from getting hurt," Votaw said. "Cars coming down Hamilton Avenue, they just fly! And it would really just take one distracted driver to really create a traumatic scene."

Votaw said school leaders are watching the busing situation daily and trying to tweak and make it safer and better.

"Bring back the XTRA routes," she pleaded. "We're definitely concerned."

A spokeswoman for Metro tells WLWT currently, there are no plans or timelines on if or when XTRA routes could be reinstated this school year, because their "decisions are driven by our workforce."

The company estimates it needs between 70 and 100 drivers to restore all the XTRA routes.

They are currently hiring and offering $1,000 sign-on bonuses.

J. White has been watching Aiken students closely over the last week from the steps of Grace Episcopal Church.

"Looking out for the kids because there are so many of them," she said. "It has been a rough one week almost, because some of the kids try to get on the bus and they just can't get on the bus 'cause there's not enough room."

White is a longtime educator herself, a teacher of 53 years. Currently, she teachers at a private school. She is worried for students' safety. Last summer, she was part of protests at the same corner and said several cars went over the curb while they were standing there.

"So I'm really worried about that many young people standing out here," she said.

A railing in front of the church is damaged. Church members say a car jumped the curb and ran into it last week.

White said cars speed down Hamilton Avenue at all times of day.

"It's a roadway from point A to point B, not the Indianapolis Speedway," she said. "This is just like the perfect storm for a major mess if somebody doesn't get a handle on it."

School board member Eve Bolton, who lives nearby, called the situation "an accident waiting to happen."

She also has major concerns about CPS students waiting for buses in inclement weather and the amount of time kids spend waiting along city bus routes.

The school board's student transportation policy reads that "transportation vehicles shall arrive and depart school within 15 minutes of start and completion of the school program."

WLWT timed how long it took to get the group of students on buses at the stop for Aiken. It took approximately 35 minutes.

"I'm afraid that this is all part of the SORTA/Metro business plan," Bolton said. "I think they've made choices, and our kids are not the priority."

The latest meeting between the SORTA board, which oversees Metro, and Cincinnati Public Schools is set for next week. Councilman David Mann, who chairs the budget and finance committee, invited both groups to attend Monday afternoon's meeting "to discuss the many concerns being expressed about the abrupt changes in transportation for older school children."

CINCINNATI —

Cincinnati Public Schools board of education members say changes have been made to keep students as safe as possible when the school year kicks off Thursday.

Concerns from board members, teachers and parents have been heard loud and clear over the last few weeks following a decision by the SORTA board to eliminate XTRA bus routes thousands of CPS students rely on each year to get to and from school. Instead, CPS middle and high school students will commute alongside adults on the regular Metro routes.

"I think it's a real possibility that this can go pretty well," said school board member Melanie Bates. "We're had discussions with the city, further discussion with SORTA. And people are on the same page about safety for our students."

Last week, representatives from CPS met with SORTA in a private meeting that produced little progress other than an agreement that individuals from both groups needed to work together to make changes ahead of the first day of school.

Ryan Messer, vice president of the school board, was part of that meeting and the conversations since.

"They came together to look site by site. What could we do to make these as safe as possible?" he said. "Life is one percent what happens, 99 percent how you respond."

CPS and Metro are responding with a list of changes to keep students safe. The school board expects more changes will be needed once the school year s tarts.

Metro is adding and changing bus stops at several high schools and adding a few additional routes. Bates said those changes were important to her.

"My worry was the children say from Walnut Hills having to go to Montgomery Road and crossing en masse," Bates said.

Metro also agreed to have shadow buses on standby in case there are routes that do not have enough capacity.

CPS is adding more adult supervision at arrival and dismissal times which will come from school staff, central office staff and school security. School resource officers will also help with pedestrian safety efforts.

"From what I'm hearing it's all hands on deck," Bates said. "Our security guards have been trained as crossing guards. They're now licensed crossing guards."

Staff from Metro will be at each high school orientation to help students learn about public transportation and the Metro system. An unidentified number of Metro staffers will also be present at various transfer points to help guide students at the start of the year.

Students will ride for free for the first few days of school. They will receive bus passes at their respective schools.

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education painted a dismal picture for the crowd at their Wednesday meeting, describing a scenario where 1,000 students catch Metro buses on a busy Clifton Avenue.

That was in response to Metro ending dedicated routes for nearly 6,000 students and forcing them to use new, regular Metro routes instead.

“It’s too dangerous for our students,” Cincinnati Federation of Teachers president Julie Sellers said. “Not fair to our kids.”

It’s not clear how many of those students would then need to transfer to other buses to get to school.

“That means the Cincinnati Police Department will be managing the children,” board member Eve Bolton said. “They will be in the hundreds waiting for the next bus. That’s unacceptable.”

The XTRA routes were put in place decades ago to help students get to school safely – board members said they learned about the changes one week ago.

“They’re choosing what to eliminate, and what they’re choosing is the bus routes for children,” board member Ben Lindy said.

The board unanimously voted to oppose Metro’s elimination of the XTRA routes. They plan to write a letter to SORTA, which oversees Metro, meet with their board members and bring everyone to the table to discuss options.

“This is a service that they wanted to take away – we need a year to figure that out, certainly not three weeks,” board member Mike Moroski said.

Others said stronger actions should be taken.

“(The) district should talk with the legal department to find out if they can seek a temporary injunction prohibiting any change until a real plan can be developed,” Sellers said.

The consensus from board members is that it would take months to reconfigure bus routes – and that’s time they don’t have. School starts in the next few weeks.

“There is irreparable harm,” said David Brenner during the meeting. “It’s a huge safety issue for students.”

The district’s director of transportation – who negotiated the deal with Metro – is now on administrative leave. He’s accused of making decisions without telling senior administrators or the board and misrepresenting the talks with SORTA.

Metro spokesperson Brandy Jones said the new system will be much better for students, partly because it will be more reliable. The XTRA routes missed hundreds of rides a month. By merging school routes with regular routes, those mistakes should be taken care of. Also, she said, it’s too late to make a radical change before classes start.

“There is no time left, 10 days prior to the start of school to redesign our service -- that is not a feasible option,” Jones said. “Per our contract, CPS was to deliver to us the new start times of the school year back in March, that did not occur until July. And so, we were not given the information. Months later, that per the contract, we’re supposed to have back in March.

The issue, she said, comes down to miscommunication. Once parents get a chance to look at the new route information, Jones thinks they will see the enhancements made for students.

“Under the new model, no student will make more than one transfer,” she said. “We had students who, you know, if I missed my bus, if I’m running late, and I’m five minutes late, there’s no other bus that I can take. Now another bus is coming five to seven minutes later your way. And so, if you look at the frequency, the more trip options that students can take, the shorter the trip time.

She said the ride to school will be 10 minutes shorter on average and students will be picked up withing 200 feet of their home. Metro was able to make that adjustment because CPS provided it with every student’s address.

SORTA is hosting a virtual meeting Thursday, August 5 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. where they will discuss the route changes. The meeting will also be streamed on Metro’s Facebook page.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa —

A man pulled two people from a fiery crash on Interstate 80 Tuesday morning in Iowa.

Those people are recovering in the hospital.

Runk Wood says he's not a hero, but just did what he had to do.

"You can't be scared to help people," Wood said.

He proved that, during his drive to work from Avoca, Iowa to Lincoln.

"As I got closer to it, I could tell that the car was burning. The fire got pretty big," Wood said.

He saw the horrific scene near Interstate 80 and McPherson Avenue in Council Bluffs.

Council Bluffs Police say the car was stopped in the middle of the interstate when a truck hit it. The car hit a barricade and caught fire.

"A lot of people were driving by. I didn't see a whole lot of brake lights, which kind of touches my heart, where we live in a society where you see a car burning in the median, you don't stop," Wood said.

But Wood did stop.

"I could hear the girl screaming and nobody was getting near the car and it was just a reaction of I'm not going to stand here and listen to somebody burn up in the car so I just went for it," he said.

He says he pulled the driver to safety first.

"Got her about 20 feet away from the car. Then she was talking to me, I couldn't understand what she was saying. But she kept pointing at the car," Wood said.

That's when he realized there was someone else in the car, so he rescued that person too.

"My hands are a little red. The right side of my face is a little tender from the heat, from the fire," Wood said.

Wood is happy he was there to help but he insists: "I don't want the hero title. I'm just a simple man that was headed to work and chose to stop and help somebody."