Decatur's school board is likely to approve a plan to offer expanded bus service to school students next year. The decision could come this afternoon when the board meets in a called session to consider a plan the state offered for transporting all students in kindergarten through ninth grade.

Approval will be contingent on money coming from the Legislature to pay for the service.

The city needs the bus service. Not having busing, no doubt, causes some people to choose to not live in Decatur.

In its consideration of the plan, board members must look more closely at where to pick up students. School administrators favor a plan that collects students from designated pickup points and brings them back to the same locations.

That plan will cut the time it takes to complete routes but it may not be as convenient for parents as picking students up in front of their homes.

Collection points should be within walking distances of the students' homes, if that is the plan the board approves.

Superintendent Sam Houston, in hailing the state's approval for the city to bus, noted that there is no safer way to get to school than on a school bus.

Student safety is paramount in any plan. Yet convenience is a major consideration, too. In this day of one-parent households and those with both parents working, not having the rigid schedule of getting children to and from a certain point at a certain time will relieve some daily stress.

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