But several parents don’t like proposal
By: Dick Brinster
HIGHTSTOWN Nonpublic students from the East Windsor Regional district will be riding buses to class this school year after Superintendent Ron Bolandi reached an 11th-hour agreement with a private carrier that was approved 7-0 by the school board this week.
But some parents are concerned their young children will have to spend 10-hour days away from home because of the new cluster bus-stop plan, where all the students will be picked up either at Hightstown High School or the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School.
"The fact is I have a 5-year-old who’s going to attend kindergarten and I have to put him on a bus at 6:30 when classes don’t start until 8," said Edward Harrington Heyburn, a lawyer from East Windsor with two children in St. Paul Elementary School in Princeton.
Mr. Heyburn, who spoke to the board at its Monday meeting, plans to take the cause one step further. He filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn the state law providing public schools with $826 a year per child for transportation to nonpublic schools.
Mr. Bolandi was set to announce last week that the parents of 214 children who attend four area Catholic schools would receive that stipend instead of bus transportation. The superintendent has explained that the district lost money last school year by busing the children with its own equipment and personnel. Then, it joined a county cooperative seeking bids on behalf of nine school districts. However, Mr. Bolandi said, with the state allowance rising just 4 percent and most governing bodies and authorities placing the increase in operating expenses at 35 to 40 percent, there were no bidders.
But speaking to more than 300 people at an Aug. 24 meeting Mr. Bolandi said he was 95 percent sure he would reach a deal with a vendor. He did that Monday with First Student Transportation Co. of Trenton.
Mr. Bolandi acknowledged that the new deal is a "Band-Aid" fix that would leave some parents dissatisfied.
One such parent is Francine King of Millstone, who told the board Monday that under the new plan her two children, who attend St. Paul Elementary School in Princeton, will be gone each day from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Ms. King said she is concerned about the problems children will have sitting in traffic and then experiencing another delay upon reaching St. Paul, the most problematic of the schools in the plan because buses must cross an extremely busy section of Route 1 to get to congested Princeton.
"What’s worse is they expect these children to sit for an extra hour and 10 minutes before they get on the bus at the end of the day," she said.
Mary Ellen Procaccini, director of the New Jersey Network of Catholic School Families, said Tuesday that she is aware of the problem and believes that First Student might be able to reduce the delay time once the routes become established. Three Catholic elementary schools St. Paul, St. Gregory the Great in Hamilton Square and Our Lady of Sorrows in Mercerville along with Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville all start the school year Tuesday.
"You can only imagine that we tried everything possible," Ms. Procaccini said of the busing plan, which was approved by the Diocese of Trenton.
Monday’s school board approval left parents with another dilemma. Now, that that service will be provided, they won’t have the option of receiving $826 and setting up their own transportation.
"Our hands are tied," said Ms. King.
She wasn’t alone in worrying about the logistics.
"I just hope we haven’t won the battle and lost the war," said Celeste Stewart of East Windsor, whose children attend Notre Dame and St. Gregory the Great.
Ms. Procaccini said parents sending their children to nonpublic schools relieve some of the burden on local taxpayers who aren’t paying the cost of educating those children. If students in private schools had to be placed in public schools because of transportation problems, it would cost the district more money, she said. Fixing the busing problem is the key or every nonpublic school could be without transportation and certain to lose valuable tuition dollars, she added.
"It certainly would jeopardize the viability of the Catholic schools if we lost these children," she said.
And, it also wouldn’t help the district, Chris and Carol Livesey of Hightstown said in a letter to the editor of the Herald (see Page 66) that was critical of a correspondence they received in the wake of the Aug. 24 meeting from school board Vice President Bob Laverty.
"The final statement in his letter suggests that if we want equality, we should send our collective 214 children to the public schools," the Liveseys wrote. "I wonder where he thinks that East Windsor would find the $2.6 million ($12,400 dollars per student) that it would cost to educate 214 additional children in a school system already bursting at the seams."
Mr. Laverty said Wednesday that parents are equating the sentiment of his letter with statements expressed by other school board members several years ago. He said it’s "none of my business whether parents are wealthy or not."
"The point of my comment, which was taken out of context, is that we cannot control the many disparities that arise from the distances that students have to travel to attend these private schools," Mr. Laverty told the Herald. "They are longer routes through heavier traffic. They take more time and cost more."
Judith Caviston, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Trenton, praised the work of Mr. Bolandi.
"One of our public school colleagues has joined forces in really trying to change things," she told the crowd on Aug. 24.
George Corwell, associate director for the New Jersey Catholic Conference, said at last week’s meeting that the problem is affecting much more than one district or one county. He also said the inability to afford to build nonpublic schools has morphed a small figure into a large one over the years.
"As a result of a variety of factors, that are fodder for changing various laws, 42 percent of the eligible nonpublic school students receive payments in lieu of transportation," Mr. Corwell said. "That’s an ungodly number."
Mr. Bolandi, on Monday night, urged parents to help solve the growing problem by lobbying for help from Trenton.
"What I would suggest is that you start phone chains," he said, noting the presence of several legislators at the meeting Aug. 24. "You vote for them. The only thing they understand is the power of numbers."
Under the new plan, Notre Dame and St. Paul pickup times will be 6:30 a.m. at the High School and five minutes later at Kreps. Parents can choose either location.
The pickup times for students going to St. Gregory’s and Our Lady of Sorrows will be 7 a.m. at Kreps.
Notre Dame’s afternoon departure time would be approximately 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., and St Paul students would be picked up about 3:30 p.m. to 3:40 p.m.
Departure times for St. Gregory’s and Our Lady of Sorrows would be approximately 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
After-school stop locations would be close to those of last school year, Mr. Bolandi said.
Now, all that remains for the contract to take effect is approval from the state. Mr. Bolandi expects no trouble with that.
"It would floor me if they kicked this contract back," he said. "I’m telling you, we’ll all go down to Trenton to sit by the door of the Department of Education until they approve it."
DOE spokesman Rich Vespucci said that without any special circumstances, approval should be routine.