ABERDEEN — The suspension of free shuttle bus service between Matawan-Aberdeen district schools has parents concerned about the safety of students who must now walk between schools where they will be picked up by parents.
“We are not physically or financially or lawfully entitled to this bus, I get it, but our kids need to be safe,” parent Shelly Gershner told board members at their Aug. 24 meeting.
“We have a need [for more busing] and we have to figure out how to do this … and think outside the box on how to fix this because it is unacceptable.”
Following a redistricting, the Matawan- Aberdeen Regional School District instituted a free shuttle bus between Lloyd Road Elementary School and Strathmore Elementary School as a courtesy to assist parents with students at both schools who were not eligible for free busing. The two schools are located less than a half mile apart.
“[The shuttle] was never intended to last as long as it did,” said Patrick DeGeorge, assistant superintendent for business, at the Aug. 24 board of education meeting.
“Lloyd Road students who live within the boundaries of Strathmore and Lloyd Road are not, according to the law, eligible for free transportation because they live less than two miles from the school.”
For some parents, the shuttle relieved the necessity to drive between schools to pick up their students.
According to DeGeorge, last year 167 students were taken by shuttle from Lloyd Road to Strathmore. Of that number, 50 were students who were not entitled to free transportation but provided it as a “courtesy.”
“This resulted in the balance of 117 students who were entitled to free busing, who had to wait an extra 20 to 30 minutes to get to their home because the bus had to drop off the shuttle students at Strathmore,” De- George said.
“So for that reason the shuttle was suspended.”
While DeGeorge said several notices were sent out regarding the cancellation of the shuttle, one parent told board members that his family received no communication regarding the shuttle bus being discontinued and raised concerns over the safety of pupils who must walk to Strathmore due to the suspension of the shuttle.
“I don’t look at this as an entitlement in terms of busing, I look at it as a requirement of this district for the safety of our children. … I do not want my child walking from Lloyd Road to Strathmore,” the parent said.
Another issue raised is the district’s subscription busing policy available to all students who are not entitled to free transportation, essentially students who live within two miles of their school.
“Public elementary school students who are not eligible or entitled to free transportation, under the law, may apply to purchase transportation under the subscription-busing program,” DeGeorge said.
According to DeGeorge, while a district is not obligated to offer paid busing, approximately 470 applications were received for the subscription-busing program, 224 of which were submitted by deadline.
“Under our current policy, those who submitted the application by deadline will be given first preference and will be provided a seat on the bus,” he said.
According to DeGeorge, the district transports approximately 2,700 students, whether it’s through the district’s own routes or routes out of district for students who attend technical schools or nonpublic schools.
“The process is that we first need to go through the cycle of determining what our enrollments are at each school and each grade level,” he explained, “… then we first route the special education students who have transportation required in their IEP; then next try to route all the general education students who are entitled by law to transportation; and then we see how many seats we have available and then we seat the subscription applicants.”
Compounding the issue is an aging bus fleet, DeGeorge said, and the necessity to consider the burden on taxpayers.
“In the past three years … we purchased four replacement vehicles to keep up with the current level of need and service that we have to our kids in the district,” he said.
“We really can’t … go out and buy additional buses solely for additional needs that we really can’t even anticipate because it’s not in our budget.
“It’s a tough responsibility to balance this obligation across district, but come the next budget cycle I will be asking to replace two more vehicles well past the mileage I am comfortable with or will be by the time we come to the next school year.”
Board member Joelle Nappi said her issue with the busing is the fact that people are in limbo about whether their student will get a seat on a subscription bus.
“It just seems to me like we need another bus … and I don’t think I really understand the financial piece as to why it is not prudent for us to get another bus,” she said. “
Nappi also said there is a “breakdown of communication” about which students are eligible for busing.
“This information should be going home to parents way before the end of the school year.”
DeGeorge took full responsibility for any confusion and miscommunication on the issue and told board members and attendees that the district would weigh different options.
“Our policy does state that we can create subscription busing routes through independent vendors if we run out of space on our buses for the year, but it is extremely expensive, it could run $1,000 a year because of how some routes run, but we will take it into consideration.”
Board President Anissa Esposito said that while the decision to suspend the shuttle was not the board’s choice, the board would look at what could be done for students no longer receiving the service.
“We are willing to explore what opportunities we can come up with as alternatives, but can’t promise that things will happen quickly,” she said.