MILLSTONE – A township man is committed to forming a task force to help ease nonpublic school transportation issues.
Wayne Londregan’s 16-year-old son attends St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel. The Millstone Township School District, which by law has to provide transportation for its nonpublic school students living between two and 20 miles from their schools, or aid in lieu of transport, has been unsuccessful in obtaining busing for its 22 students who attend St. John Vianney and its eight students who attend Christian Brothers Academy in the Lincroft section of Middletown.
“I hope they are not cutting checks prior to sitting down with us and meeting to work on solutions,” Londregan said on Monday, still hopeful that the school district is searching for possible solutions other than paying parents the $859 per-pupil aid in lieu of transportation fee.
Parents like Londregan remain optimistic that the school district will find transportation solution for their children, since many, now that school has started, are having issues scheduling rides around work, finding car pools and/or grappling with whether or not it would be easier to put their children back into public schools, according to Londregan.
Londregan hopes a task force could develop innovative ways to solve the transportation problem this year as well as means of keeping nonpublic school transportation issues at bay in the future. He has been working with Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (D-12), George Corwell, the associate director for education of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, and Mary Ellen Procaccini, a representative from the New Jersey Network of Catholic School Families, to keep the nonpublic school transportation issue in the forefront, since school has already started.
Londregan said he would like the task force to represent every nonpublic school that Millstone students attend. Londregan said ideally he would like to have a representative from St. John Vianney High School, Christian Brothers Academy, Notre Dame High School in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence, and St. Rose of Lima School in Freehold Borough.
Such a task force was developed in the East Windsor School District when it faced similar transportation problems. The task force there ultimately developed a solution to use cluster stops for its nonpublic school students, meaning parents and guardians had to pick up and drop off students at certain locations throughout town, rather than having the buses pick up and drop off students door to door.
Corwell, who assists the New Jersey bishops in collaborating on matters of public policy while expressing the views of the Catholic Church, said that such a task force in Millstone could look into transportation solutions including mixing nonpublic and public students on buses, which is allowed by law, and eliminating busing on half-days to bring the bid price for nonpublic school runs down.
Corwell said a task force could also urge the county superintendent of schools to hold the annual transportation meeting regarding nonpublic school routes, which is mandated by a 1997 law, to be held before bids for the routes have to go out.
“Some county superintendents are calling this meeting in the fall to talk about what they have accomplished, when they should be convening in the spring when everyone has a sense of what they are going to be needing in terms of service,” Corwell said.
Corwell said he believes change will have to come in the form of increasing the amount of money school districts can spend on nonpublic transportation and by placing the nonpublic school transportation problems in the hands of the county superintendent of schools to solve with county resources.
Procaccini, who helps educate and mobilize individuals and organizations to be advocates of public policies that support the families whose children attend the Catholic schools of New Jersey, said it would be good for parents and guardians to stay involved with the transportation issues well after the bids go out, and whether they come back with or without takers.
“A task force could help,” Procaccini said. “When policy makers hear about parents giving up their time to attend meetings to work at this, it makes a difference.”
Procaccini said an added incentive to forming a task force is that she has seen school districts come up with nonpublic school bus routes in October.