Several parents with children at North Bend Elementary School are concerned that cuts to bus pickups are forcing their children to walk unsafe routes. They say limited sidewalks, poor lighting and a registered sex offender put their children at risk.

School officials say they are working to add stops on Eighth Avenue Northeast, which has inadequate sidewalks in places, as early as this week to address the problem. The extra stops should help between 20 and 30 children, according to Jim Garhart, the district’s transportation director.

The district is also working to address concerns in the Forster Woods neighborhood, he said.

Bus service had been reduced by the district as part of its budget reductions necessary due to the state’s budget crisis.

Among the affected by the bus cuts is Jody Proudfoot, who runs a daycare in North Bend’s Silver Creek neighborhood. She has to walk with eight children 0.8 miles to the school two times a day.

“I’m dragging a two-year-old; I have a couple three-year-olds,” Proudfoot said.

A round trip takes her up to 50 minutes.

Proudfoot said she has several safety concerns for the children in her care, such as getting hit by a car or chased by an aggressive, off-leash dog. Also, like other parents, she is deeply troubled knowing a registered sex offender lives a few blocks from the school.

The sex offender, a 17-year-old boy, was convicted in 2006 of first degree rape of a child.

“I’m walking other people’s children and I’m responsible for them,” she said.

She has run the daycare for 13 years, and has had children walk to school before, but they were always at least in third grade. Now, several children are six-years-old and in kindergarten.

Proudfoot and parents have addressed the issue with the school district, but say they have received very little response and were unaware of the district’s claim to add stops on Eighth Avenue Northeast.

“They just keep saying the same things,” she said. “It’s like they’re just digging in their heels now.”

The district has told Proudfoot if they pick her up, they would have to pick up everyone in the mile walk zone, she said.

The district already picks up two daycares located half a mile from the school. However, these daycares are on the other side of North Bend Way, which the district considers a major roadway. If children have to cross a major roadway, it is deemed an unsafe walk zone by the district.

Proudfoot’s daycare students don’t have to cross any major streets, but there is plenty of car traffic and no marked crosswalks, she said.

“(Cars) don’t even slow down,” when she and her students are waiting to cross the street, she said.

Proudfoot doesn’t want the district to stop picking up the other daycares, but only pick hers up as well.

“It’s not safe for them but it’s not safe for us either,” she said.