The board has decided to not allow non-bus-riders to enroll in a subscription bus service. The board also looked at ways to make transit to its schools safer.
By: Michael Arges
East Windsor Regional Board of Education members decided at Monday’s meeting against providing subscription bus service for children not eligible for free service.
Board members suggested that it would be difficult or impossible to establish a policy for subscription service that would be fair to all concerned.
Other bus-related issues at the meeting included an update on the delays in bus service that have plagued the district so far this year and possible solutions to safety concerns about the school bus stop at Oakmont Terrace.
In response to parents’ requests at previous meetings, district leaders have been exploring the possibility of filling empty seats on school buses with students who do not qualify for the free transportation mandated by state regulations. The district is required to transport elementary students living more than two miles from school and older students living more that two-and-a-half miles from school. The district also transports students whose route has been judged unsafe by local municipalities.
The board had been considering the idea of allowing parents the option to participate with preference given to those living furthest away from school. Parents would pay the extra administrative and other costs of the program.
"I think there are more problems than there are solutions," board Vice President Bruce Ettman said about the idea. "It sounds to me to be an enormous administrative undertaking to manage and it is fraught with possibilities of claims of unfairness."
Mr. Ettman suggested that it would create tremendous expense to the district and a great potential for legal liability.
Board attorney David Coates agreed with those concerns, cautioning that the board would have to be very careful in setting up a subscription service to avoid any appearance of being arbitrary or capricious.
"This is a very difficult area to come up with a policy that would not be challenged," he said. Mr. Coates noted that the varying situations among the different schools would make it difficult to craft a fair policy.
In a report to the board, District Business Manager David Shafter noted several factors that would make a subscription plan cumbersome and expensive. He noted that at most schools there are more students walking than there are available seats. Some empty seats must be set aside for enrollment increases, Mr. Shafter said. The number of seats will vary from year to year.
Parents would have to sign up for the subscription service before they could be told the final cost, since children eligible for free and reduced lunches that would also sign up for the bus service would have to be subsidized by those paying for the service, Mr. Shafter added. It would probably be November before subscription bus service could begin.
"It’s not an easy situation and it’s not as simple as it seems when someone says, ‘We have empty seats on the bus that are going to waste. Why can’t my child ride?’ " Mr. Shafter said. "Most times the reason that they’re empty seats on a bus is because of the time it takes to do the bus run. We’ve always wanted to have all our seats filled up, but we can never do that because of the time it takes."
Mr. Shafter also reported that the district is still experiencing some problems with buses arriving late.
"The runs are longer and we’re having more and more traffic in town even with the bypass that we just don’t have enough time in that half hour," Mr. Shafter said. He noted that the district is considering moving back the start time of elementary schools five minutes to help alleviate the problem.
Mr. Shafter also had further explanation of the computer problem that caused so much confusion and delay for the district’s bus service at the beginning of the school year. Most district buses make three runs each morning and afternoon one for the high school, one for the middle school and one for elementary schools.
"When another run stopping at the same corner was entered, it would over-ride the first stop," Mr. Shafter explained. "For example, the high school stop would show, (but) the elementary and Kreps stops would be left out."
Here is where a lack of experience in the bus office came into play, according to Mr. Shafter. The district has a new bus dispatcher and new assistant to the transportation supervisor.
"The previous secretarial assistant was here for years, and she could work around this system," Mr. Shafter said. "He didn’t even know this was happening until it was too late.
"It won’t happen again," Mr. Shafter insisted.
The district will have to purchase a new software system for next year, he said.
District leaders are awaiting input from East Windsor Township about the possibility of traffic adjustments that might allow the district to establish bus stops on Oakmont Terrace instead of the present stops on Dutch Neck Road. If a new stop is established, the bus would go into the community and turn left at the stop sign to pick up students in front of 1 Oakmont Terrace.
For that approach to work, the district will need no parking restrictions to ensure that the bus can make the left turn, an overhanging tree must be trimmed, and steps must be taken to be sure that two basketball hoops overhanging the street are kept out of the way. An alternative would be to establish sidewalks or some kind of bus enclosure on Dutch Neck Road where students could wait more safely.
District representatives also plan to meet with Hightstown officials to discuss the possibility of a sidewalk or other safety improvements on Summit Street. Parents in the Princeton East area have complained that their children walking to the high school have no side walk, and that the problem is even worse when it snows.
"When it snows and they clean the streets, our kids are walking in the middle of the street," noted Marjorie Zachary of Winchester Drive.
District administrators have noted that several years ago Hightstown certified that all streets and roads in Hightstown are safe routes for walking children to take to school. This means the school district cannot provide special bus service for children walking these routes without being unfair to others.
That appears to be part of the reason why residents in the Stonegate development, in East Windsor, receive school busing, and residents in the Wycoff Mills development, nearby in Hightstown, do not. Hightstown Mayor Amy Aughenbaugh appeared at Monday’s meeting to voice the concerns of Wycoff Mills parents wondering why their children are not eligible for school busing.

