HEBRON — Selectmen decided this week to seek an alternative to school buses turning around in residential driveways, because of reported damage.

Selectman Jim Reid noted at Monday’s board meeting that a school bus turns around on Townsend Road during the school year and, over time, has crushed a culvert, which now needs to be replaced and repaved with processed tar.

Reid said he thought students would be able to walk to the end of the road to be picked up by the school bus, but according to Selectman Dan Eichorn, students are not allowed to.

“They are supposed to stand at the end of their driveways,” Eichorn explained.

Eichorn said that practice is a policy specific to the Oxford Hills School District.

According to the policy on the SAD 17 website, Oxford Hills School District provides transportation services in the interest of student safety.

The School Board establishes guidelines to determine eligibility based primarily on walking distance to school or to the nearest bus stop, according to the SAD 17 Transportation Department.

A student’s walking distance is defined as the shortest distance from home to school/bus stop through safe designated trails, walking paths and sidewalks, and according to age and grade, according to the Transportation Department.

A kindergarten student, for instance, should walk from the door of their home to the door of the school bus. Elementary age students are advised to walk up to a half a mile, and middle and high school students are allowed to walk up to one mile to get to and from the school bus, according to the Transportation Department guidelines.

The Oxford Hills Transportation Department has developed a system to weigh factors for a student’s busing eligibility, such as age; the distance from home to school or bus stop; types of roadways; the presence of crossing guards; intersection control devices; whether a path or sidewalk is available; and other considerations such as poor visibility or presence of construction.

“The way they do it now, you have to be picked up at the end of your driveway unless you live within a mile of the school, then you can walk or bike,” Eichorn told selectmen. “But if you are getting picked up by the bus, you must be at your driveway,” he stated.

Reid said he was surprised when he heard an Oxford Hills School District bus had turned around in a residential driveway and tore up the tar.

In the case of dead-end roads, buses won’t drive down the road to pick up students, Eichorn said. Students are required to walk to the end of the road, he said.

Eichorn questioned why students on through-way roads, on the other hand, can’t meet at the end of the road to get picked up versus the bus driver stopping at every driveway.

Reid said one resident complained of a bus turning around on his private road, saying he paid to fix the road and didn’t want the bus backing into the road every day.

While it may be safer for students to be picked up at their homes, allowing them to walk to the end of the road promotes exercise, Reid suggested.

Selectmen said they will contact the bus garage about the buses turning around in residential areas and come up with an alternative solution for picking up students without tearing up the road.