ALLENTOWN: Proposed rules, appeal forms target bus stop concerns

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ALLENTOWN — Parents upset about the new cluster bus stops in Upper Freehold turned out in force as the school board introduced a new policy for evaluating bus stop safety that requires families to fill out a standardized form if they think their child’s bus stop is dangerous.
   Controversial bus route changes were implemented in September to save time and money in the face of steep school budget cuts, but many parents have complained that the new cluster bus stops established on busier main roads, instead of inside the neighborhoods, compromise student safety.
   At the Oct. 6 Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education meeting, it was parents from Mill Pond Drive and Stacey Drive in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold Township who gave the board an earful.
   Travis Bassi, of Mill Pond Drive, said he was designated by other families in his neighborhood as their representative to tell the board the bus stop on Davis Station Road near Mill Pond Drive was hazardous.
   ”It’s a 40-mph road that goes into a curve,” Mr. Bassi said. “It’s not good. We don’t want to see a child dead on that road.”
   Since the outcry over the new bus stops began in mid-August, some parents have succeeded in convincing the school district to move their children’s stops to quieter residential streets inside their developments. Other parents whose complaints have not been resolved, however, keep coming to board meetings to criticize the district’s process for re-evaluating the stops.
   Superintendent of Schools Richard Fitzpatrick said the proposed rules and appeal forms setting standardized criteria for re-evaluating stops would help avoid any misunderstandings that falsely imply that the district “cares about one group of children in one location over another.”
   ”I’ll fill out whatever forms you want, but I really don’t want to be back here again at the next meeting,” responded Renee Springhorn, of Stacey Drive, who contends that her son’s new bus stop on Holmes Mill Road is dangerous.
   Gina Pardo, another Stacey Drive resident upset about the safety of the Holmes Mill Road stop, made her point by taking issue with school board members’ enthusiastic reviews earlier that night of the new high-tech interactive SMART boards at the middle school.
   ”Before kids can use a SMART board, they have to arrive at school alive,” Ms. Pardo said bitterly. “Put our stop back on Stacey Drive.”
   The pupil transportation regulations, which still must be formally adopted by the school board at a future meeting, are based on research by the National Center for Safe Routes to School, part of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
   The proposed rules state that bus stops should be created with efficiencies in mind and point out that individual stops at homes add considerable time to a bus route. However, the rules also state that whenever possible, bus stops should not be on roads where the speed limit exceeds 35 mph. Previously, the district’s transportation rules did not specifically address a road’s speed limit.
   Stops should not be placed on cul-de-sacs either, whenever possible, because a full-size bus requires 115 feet to turn around and most cul-de-sacs provide only 90 feet of space, the proposed rules say.
   Other criteria include the recommendation that bus stop locations provide enough space for parents and children to be able to wait at least 12 feet from the roadway. No more than 14 students should be assigned to a single stop.
   Whenever possible, the district also should avoid putting a bus stop in a place where the bus will need to make a K-turn, the proposed rules say. If this is unavoidable, students should board the bus before it attempts to back up. On the return trip, students should not be allowed off until the bus has finished backing up and is in a forward-facing position.
   Although the regulations are not yet adopted, a standardized “Bus Stop Change Request Form” associated with the new rules is being made available in the meantime to parents who want their child’s bus stop reviewed. The form will be posted on the school district’s website next week, Dr. Fitzpatrick said, at www.ufrsd.net.