Courtesy busing restored in Plumsted
According to Plumsted Mayor Ron Dancer, the deal means 400 children who would have had to walk or find another means of transportation to and from school will not have to do so.
Earlier this year the school board opted not to include funding for courtesy busing in the 2010-11 budget.
Courtesy busing is transportation that is provided to students who live close to the school they attend even though that transportation is not required by the state to be provided.
The school board’s decision not to fund courtesy busing threw the ball into the lap of the township, which would have been responsible for hiring, training and paying for crossing guards to ensure the safety of children walking to school.
With word of the shared services agreement, both sides will now pay to provide the courtesy busing service that was previously completely funded by the school board.
Dancer said the school board was expected to ratify the shared services agreement on July 28.
Elementary school students and middle school pupils who live more than 2 miles from the school they attend and New Egypt High School students who live more than 2.5 miles from the high school were never in danger of losing their busing service.
According to the mayor, under the terms of the 2010-11 shared services agreement, the township and the school board will each share 50 percent of the total cost of continuing the school bus service. For all students to be provided with school bus transportation, the total cost is $150,000.
The school board and the township will each pay $75,000, he said.
Dancer said the Township Committee will be able to spread its $75,000 payment over two budget years and, in so doing, reduce its impact to any one budget year to $37,500, since the township has a calendar year budget beginning in January and the school district’s budget year begins in July.
He said the township will be able to offset a portion of its $37,500 annual share by transferring funds already budgeted for school crossing guards, since all students in the district will now be provided bus transportation.
The school board and the committee are also endorsing the passage of state Assembly bill A3081, sponsored by Dancer, who serves in the Assembly, that would establish within the state Department of Education a grant program to provide up to 50 percent matching funds to school districts that enter into a shared services agreement with municipalities for the funding of hazardous route school bus transportation for students residing within 2.5 miles of their school.
The proposed legislation would also require schools to meet certain efficiency ratings for bus transportation to be eligible for the state aid matching funds, he said.
Resident Tim Hagar, who has three children attending Plumsted schools, has been lobbying school district administrators and municipal officials for several months to reinstate courtesy busing.
Hagar had expressed concern in letters to the editor and in communication with the school district and the township that beginning in September, children who no longer would be provided with courtesy busing would be forced to walk along dangerous roads to reach their school.
That scenario will not play out now that the school district and the municipality have reached an agreement.
“It has been a bit of work to get it done, yet the outcome is worth it. It is wonderful that Mayor Dancer and our Township Committee took the lead to make sure our students are safe going to school, even after the school board left the students in an unsafe situation,” Hagar said.
“I am very glad that all students will have the chance to be bused now and not risking harm on the roads. The Plumsted school board really needs to think about what their position is and their responsibility to our town. Also, we need to support A3081 to further ensure students’ safety in the future,” Hagar said.
