NORTH HANOVER Local school officials were a bit confused when the township received a grant last month from the same state government that criticized their district for having inefficient bus transportation.
By:David Koch
The state Department of Community Affairs awarded the township a $94,749 REAP (Regional Aid Efficiency Program) grant for the school district’s shared services with neighboring districts. The shared services included a technology coordinator with Northern Burlington Regional High School and several bus routes with the Northern Burlington Regional, Plumsted, New Hanover and Chesterfield districts, said Schools Superintendent Richard Carson.
Yet, while the Department of Community Affairs rewarded the school district for sharing bus routes, the state Department of Education notified the district in March that it was running below the mandated efficiency level for school bus transportation.
"We’re good enough to get the REAP money, but we’re not good enough to reach the efficiency," said school board member Charles Schroeder.
The state DOE requires school districts to run buses at 120 percent of their maximum capacity, said Mr. Schroeder.
The state requires that the total number of daily school bus riders in the district be greater than the number of seats on those buses, some of which are used for multiple routes. The state requires this because it reduces the number of buses on the road, Mr. Schroeder said.
But to meet the state’s transportation efficiency level, buses in North Hanover would have to travel longer routes to pick up more kids, and students would have to stay on buses longer than the school district would like.
"Because of the ruralness of our community, we don’t believe in having our kids on the bus for more than 45 minutes," said Dr. Carson.
The school district also tries to leave a certain number of seats empty on the bus to accommodate the large turnover of students from McGuire Air Force Base.
"We don’t even fill the buses at 100 percent (capacity), because we have people in and out," said Mr. Schroeder.
However, the school board has approved a corrective action plan to try to reach the state efficiency level.
"It’s a plan to look at it, and see if there are any different ways of putting more kids on the bus," said Dr. Carson.
"The maximum penalty they (the state) could do is withhold transportation aid," said Mr. Schroeder. The school district received a total of $270,964 in transportation aid from the DOE last year, said Dr. Carson.
The Township Committee will determine how the $94,749 REAP award is spent. If it were used for school tax relief, it could mean a 6-cent reduction in the local school tax rate, or a savings of $104 for the average homeowner, Dr. Carson said.