FAIRFIELD — B. Gale Wilson Elementary School has added two new school buses in an era when the service is being cut back, but with a twist: These are so-called “walking school buses.”
“I’m a ‘walking school bus’ driver,” parent Anna Peregoy said as children began to gather Wednesday morning at the corner of Waterman Boulevard and Vista Grande.
Peregoy wore a reflective vest and led more than a dozen children in a line on a one-mile walk to the school starting at 8:10 a.m. Other parents either walked with their children or simply dropped their children off to fall in with the walkers.
The Solano Transportation Authority and Solano County Public Health want to spur a walking-to-school comeback. The “walking school bus” is the latest initiative from the four-year-old Safe Routes to School program.