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One local teacher is trying to get school buses for her students

Students at Emily Griffith High have to commute to their school just like adults to do work - this teacher is trying everything she can to change that.
A teacher wants to get school buses for her students she says walk to the bus, take the train and spend up to an hour on their trip to school.

Drivers will complain about traffic on a day like Thursday - with snow and ice on the roads - but consider this commute: a walk to the bus and then an hour's trip just to get to school.

No matter the weather.

A teacher at Emily Griffith High said that's the reality for many students who go there. It's an alternative school in Denver.

Some students have to travel from across the city each and every day.

Liz Muniz knows all the ins and outs of the RTD bus routes. She takes it every morning she goes to school.

With these temperatures, it's no wonder teacher Alizay Furtado wants to get her and all the other students who commute - a school bus.

Furtado said 78 percent of her students come from outside of the downtown area, where the school is located. Almost 20 percent of them come from Montbello and Green Valley Ranch.

Those bus rides she said can take up to two hours sometimes and that's beginning to take a toll in her classroom.

"It's not that they're not trying to get here," she said. "If something goes wrong on the commute or if they miss their first bus, they have to get the next one and might be filtering into class later."

Furtado is asking for a dedicated "bus only" loading zone at the school site.

"If they can't do that right now, then we're really looking for an alternate zone that's close by," she said.

One they could use while they wait for their own. Then they hope to get school buses.

"Yeah! We want to have access to district buses as well," said Furtado.

9NEWS reached out to Denver Public Schools and they sent us this statement:

DPS Transportation Services utilizes 399 buses to provide service to 176 schools with an average of 14,370 miles each day. We do not believe there is an “issue.” Transportation Services has worked to create different transportation models to address choice and flexibility for our families as seen in Far Northeast, Near Northeast, Southwest, Southeast and other zones. We are continuing to assess and modify our services. We realize our team faces the same challenges that other transportation agencies are facing, including increased population growth, traffic, longer commute times and a shortage of drivers with CDL (Commercial Drivers Licenses) licenses.

The transportation department has collaborated with the leadership at Emily Griffith high School to come up with viable solutions for providing yellow bus transportation. This downtown campus is inside a multi-use facility that requires flexibility for all. EGHS placed a request to provide transportation to address the student commute time from Far Northeast to 22nd and Tremont or to other areas in downtown Denver that provide easy access and a faster commute. Because student safety is paramount, we are assessing transportation regulations and guidelines to ensure this is a viable option.

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