By: Cara Latham
MILLSTONE In a crowded Board of Education meeting Monday night, more than 30 parents and bus drivers expressed their concerns over the possibility that busing won’t be available for private school students, and over a reduction of hours bus drivers would be working.
This past year, the district transported 158 students to private schools in Lawrence, Freehold and Holmdel and Lincroft. Next year’s numbers have not yet been determined.
Business Administrator Brian Boyle told the public that the issue centers around the new bus routes the district had to create as a result of the new middle school, which means that drivers will now have to transport those students back and forth to four schools, rather than three.
Currently, students are bused to and from Millstone Elementary and Millstone Middle schools, and to Allentown High School. Beginning in the fall, buses will also be transporting students to a new middle school that is scheduled to open on Waters Lane.
There are two other issues district officials face a shortage of bus drivers that may cause the district to have to bid the routes to a private bus company, and the fact that state law might prohibit them from offering busing to private schools if the cost exceeds $826 per pupil, he explained.
"We’re not sure we have enough drivers to cover all of the runs outside of the district, which is why we’re (looking at) outsourcing," he said, adding that if the district gets more drivers in the next couple of months, it can use them to do the runs. "’"
Currently, there are 36 district bus drivers and 45 vehicles. The district transported a total of 2,096 public school students and 48 special needs students 11 of whom are sent out of district as of October 2006, Mr. Boyle said Tuesday.
District transportation coordinator John Griffiths said Tuesday that his routing program has not been reconfigured yet. That program will take into account how many students both public and private will use the buses next year, and how many drivers are needed.
Regardless of who drives the buses, Mr. Boyle said, the district will be prohibited by state law from providing busing to private schools at all, if the costs of transportation to and from those schools exceeds a state-mandated per-pupil cost.
Currently, that state limit is set at $826 per pupil per route. This past year, it cost the district about $804 for each private school student, but he said he doesn’t know what that cost will be for the 2007-2008. Usually, the state limit is increased annually, adjusted for inflation, which could put the district in the clear, if it is raised again this year. However, he said district officials are still in the process of getting more information about the costs, and that state limit has not, as of this week, been adjusted.
If the district cannot bus the private-school students for less than $826 per pupil, then the parents of those students receive the $826 to cover the costs of making their own arrangements for transportation. This only applies to private school students. And, as it has been in the past, if a student’s house is located more than 20 miles from the private school, such as students who attend private schools as far away as Red Bank, those families aren’t reimbursed, he said.
School officials want to be able to provide the busing, and it’s not a problem of whether the school district has the finances to do so, Mr. Boyle said. The school district had budgeted for the private school busing in this year’s budget, but it’s just a matter of waiting to see if transportation costs meet the state limits, which the board does not yet know, Mr. Boyle said. He said he expects to have the answers at the end of July.
Also as a result of the new bus routes, bus drivers will be working fewer hours as well, as a result of the schools’ start times. Currently, bus drivers work just under eight hours a day, compared with the four to five they could be working on the new routes. Those hours are also not yet final, Mr. Boyle said.
"Although their hours are being cut, they still won’t be available to do other runs outside of the district, unless you can get Notre Dame to start at 10 a.m.," he added.
‘ Drivers who have private school routes, do those first and then public elementary school routes because elementary schools have later starting times.
Because there is another school being added in September, the runs will have to be scheduled for the high school and elementary and then the middle and primary schools, he added.
Shirley Petrilla, a district bus driver, asked board members how they expected to hire new bus drivers and keep the bus drivers they already employ, if drivers’ hours are cut.
"The problem that you have (of) not finding drivers you’re not going to get somebody to come here and work for four hours," she said. "That’s the problem."
This past year, Mr. Boyle said two buses also carried students to Notre Dame High School, a parochial school in Lawrence. Two buses transported students to St. Rose of Lima, a parochial grammar school in Freehold, and one bus went to both St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel and Christian Brothers Academy, in Lincroft.
Kelly Brown, a parent of a student who attends Notre Dame, asked the board why the public school students couldn’t be dropped off together at the current ” elementary and middle schools, since they sit directly beside each other. This would save time and free up some of the other bus drivers, she argued.
Board President Mary Ann Friedman said there had been issues with that in the past, including parents complaining their children were sitting on buses for long periods of time waiting for the students at the first schools to be dropped off.
She and Mr. Boyle emphasized that they were advertising for bus driver positions and that they were doing everything they can to ensure all students will have transportation, but that more information would not be available until July. At the end of next month, they will hold a meeting with the parents to discuss their findings.
"It isn’t that there isn’t money in the budget, it isn’t that we don’t want to hire bus drivers, it’s none of the above," Mr. Boyle said. "It’s simply a numbers game."
The district is looking at other options, he said after the meeting, including seeing if it can increase the number of students on each public school bus from about 40-45 to about 45-50, in order to free up some bus drivers to take students to private schools.

