By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Students attending Catholic schools might have seen a new bus rendezvous point or a slightly shorter ride on Monday.
It was the first day of a new business system worked out among the school district, parents and transportation agencies after months of disruption to begin the school year.
The players worked out an arrangement to transport elementary and high school students to Somerville-area schools on the same bus by dividing the township into east and west routes, rather than age or school destination.
Routes are closer to home for some students. Safety issues had been solved, said parent Steve DelSordo at Monday night Board of Education meeting. There were "winners and losers," he said, but he said he felt the "greater good" prevailed.
Bus utilization was way up today, Mr. DelSordo said. He thanked Business Administrator Aiman Mahmoud and his team.
To ratify the changes, the school and Middlesex Regional Education Services Commission mutually rescinded their transportation contract. The board hired First Student for the new routes.
Changes weren’t able to address drastically the amount of time a student spends on a bus, Mr. DelSordo said. This fall the board considered passing a policy of a maximum 70-minute ride to or from school.
Mr. DelSordo said private-school students’ parents were offering to help this winter in setting up a new system for 2015-16 to avoid problems.
Mr. Mahmoud returned the compliments to the parents.
I’d offer you jobs in transportation if they ever come vacant. That’s how well you know the routes," he said.
A system that splits the township geographically and uses one bus in each section to carry both elementary and high school students to Somerville-area schools was the historical pattern.
Since school started in September, however, one bus going to Immaculata High School picked up all township teenage students in an earlier route; a slightly later route took younger children to Immaculate Conception in Somerville and St. Ann’s in Raritan.
About 130 students are affected.
