BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
For Red Bank borough students attending Holy Cross School in Rumson, the will is there but not the way.
Patricia Seuffert, whose daughter attends sixth grade at Holy Cross, said at last week’s Red Bank Public School District Board of Education meeting that she has been notified that busing service will no longer be made available for her daughter, as well as 13 other Red Bank families with a total of about 20 students who attend the Rumson parochial school.
One Shrewsbury family with two students and one Little Silver family with one student in the school are also affected by the change.
Red Bank Regional High School Business Administrator Steven Terhune, who coordinates transportation for private school students in Little Silver, Shrewsbury and Red Bank, said the reason for the lack of transportation for the students who attend Holy Cross is because the school decided to extend its school day by 15 minutes at the end of the day.
“They had a contract with Murphy [Bus Co., Middletown],” Terhune said, “but Murphy did not have a bus [for the new schedule]. One of the buses that brought students to Holy Cross came to RBR afterwards, but they can’t do it because now we get out at the same time.”
Terhune said that he informed Holy Cross at the end of the last school year that extending the school day could lead to problems with transportation, but Holy Cross officials decided to go ahead with the plan.
Holy Cross School Principal Patricia Graham said last week that the day was extended in order to increase instruction time.
Terhune said that after it became clear the bus company was going to be unable to accommodate the change, he sent everything to the Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission, Tinton Falls, which pools all non-public school transportation bids together.
“They put the bid out in June,” Terhune said. “One of the two routes got bids. The other route got no bidder. They went out to bid a second time in July, and again they had no one bid.”
Terhune said that he sent letters out to parents of Holy Cross students living along the uncontracted route during the first week of August, letting them know that there would be no transportation available to those students.
Graham said that some of the parents told her that they did not receive notice of the lack of transportation and students were standing at the bus stop on the first day of school waiting for a ride.
Seuffert said that because she was on vacation during August, she had her mail held at the post office.
“I got the letter,” she said, “but I hadn’t gotten to read it by the time the first day of school came around.”
Seuffert said that she stood at the bus stop for twenty minutes with her daughter before finally driving her the four and a half miles to school.
“I am a taxpayer in Red Bank,” she said, “and I deserve the same consideration as anyone else.”
After the meeting, Red Bank Board of Education member Kimberly Hulse said to Seuffert that she thought Seuffert was acting as if she had no options.
“Have you ever thought about public education?” Hulse asked.
“I want my child to have a Catholic education,” responded Seuffert. “I did. My parents did. I want my child to have a Catholic education.”
Laura Hughes Reilly is the mother of three children who attend Holy Cross School, two in kindergarten and one in pre-kindergarten classes.
“Because of the half day for my one child,” she said, “I’ve had to drive back and forth three times. That’s a lot of back and forth.”
Reilly said that she did read the letter from Terhune before the start of school, but that it’s still an inconvenience for her, since she works.
Both Reilly and Seuffert said they believe transportation problems wouldn’t exist for them if they sent their children to public schools, but as taxpayers they still have the right to transportation.
Terhune said that he, as well as the Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission, has done what he can.
“We’ve pretty much exhausted our options,” he said. “If Holy Cross wants to create an after-school care program so that buses can pick students up later, I’ll do whatever I can do to arrange for a bus to pick them up later. Short of that, I don’t think we can find a bus for them. Murphy is the biggest company around, and they wanted that contract, and they simply didn’t have a bus to do it.”
Graham said that she would be willing to discuss holding the children at the school until 2:45 or 3 p.m. if it meant that a bus would be able to bring them home, and that she will attend a meeting planned for Sept. 21 with parents of Holy Cross students, Red Bank Public School District Superintendent Laura Morana, and Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, who is a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee.
“I hope that something can be reasoned out,” Graham said. “I’m willing to work it out.”
Terhune said that he is thankful that bids came in for even one of the routes, since the bid nearly exceeded the state limit of how much could be spent on student transportation.
“The route that did get picked up,” he said, “had the bus filled to capacity, and it almost went over the limit.”
Beck said last week that the state has a strict limit on how much can be spent on student transportation.
“The way New Jersey statute reads,” she said, “is that school districts must provide transportation for private school students as long as those costs remain within $826. If the costs exceeds that amount, the district must refund the parents $826, and not provide transportation.”
Beck said that school districts are not permitted any other options, including allowing parents to cover the difference.
She said she is currently working on legislation that would change that, leaving the final decision up to the individual school boards.
“The problem with providing transportation to private schools,” Beck explained, “is that with private schools there are fewer students and more stops.”
Seuffert said that since Sept. 6, the first day of school for Holy Cross students, she and other parents have organized a car pool for their children to get to school.
“It’s not easy,” she said after the board meeting at which she addressed the board about the transportation problems.
“I’m a nurse practitioner in Newark. I work full time and depend on that service,” said Seuffert. “We’ve gotten bus service the whole time [my daughter’s] been in school.”