New Jersey school district wants to eliminate courtesy busing for some elementary students
DELANCO TWP, N.J. (CBS) — A second school district in New Jersey is considering eliminating student courtesy busing.
The Delanco Township School District leaders decided to postpone a vote on the proposal to end busing for elementary school students during a public school board meeting on Wednesday night, just two weeks before the start of the school year.
Earlier this month, the Deptford Township School District announced it was eliminating busing but quickly rescinded the proposal after public outcry.
The proposal in Delanco Township from Dr. Leonard Fitts, the interim superintendent of schools, states students at Pearson Elementary who live less than 2 miles away will no longer get courtesy busing. Pearson is the only elementary school in the township. The district posted its school board agenda for the meeting on Monday.
Under the proposed change, special education students at Pearson and high school students who live more than 2 miles from school would still receive courtesy busing. High school students in Delanco attend nearby Riverside High School.
Yamilec Branch thought she had her kids ready for the start of school, but she says a different announcement from the Delanco Township School District came out late.
"I got these probably two weeks ago," Branch said. "The school list always comes out pretty late in the year, so I use last year's list. I was annoyed. Leaving us to try to scramble to figure out how are we going to get our kids to school without being late to work."
During the meeting parents demanded that, at a minimum, the district implement crosswalks with crossing guards.
Fitts claims the school district has little option. While the district has the fleet, including two new electric buses, he said, there are not enough drivers. Delanco has previously contracted with a nearby school district for its busing. Fitts says that school district told them they didn't have enough drivers to serve Delanco this year. We reached out to that district and are awaiting a response.
"It's the unavailability of people for these jobs that are so essential to the school district," Fitts said.
"We're continuing to search, to explore every option and possibility of finding either contracted service or drivers for our vehicles," Fitts said.
Delanco's deputy mayor and police chief said they were unaware of this proposal until this week. Fitts says he's meeting with police to discuss how to ensure children can safely get to school.
"We would like to encourage more kids to walk to school rather than to be driven," Fitts said.
While the change would apply to all 238 elementary school students, Fitts says only 10 to 15 of them use the bus.
That includes two of Branch's children, who would have a 25-minute walk to school.
Branch showed CBS News Philadelphia the path where her 5-year-old would walk a mile to school. He would have to cross Burlington Avenue, where there's no crosswalk, and then walk over old train tracks.
"It's just not safe," Branch said, "so I'm imagining my 5-year-old trying to navigate this even with a pack of other walks, and they're not able to judge like older kids can, when it's safe for them to cross the road and when it's not."
In Deptford, parents voiced their opinions about the school district's bus plan Tuesday night. After public outcry, the plan had already been shelved, but parents still showed up at the board of education meeting. It was their first face-to-face meeting with Deptford Township School District Superintendent Kevin Kanauss since the plan was announced.
Earlier this month, Deptford Township School District told parents it would immediately cut free bus service for some students. Kanauss claimed it would save the district $1.5 million a year. However, parents pushed back for safety concerns, and the school district changed its tune, so students in the school district will still get courtesy busing.
"Whenever there's a problem, the parents come together," parent Tam Burns said. "When all this happened, the parents came right to the news. The parents were not going to stand for this. The teachers are not going to stand for this. It's a very close-knit community. No one is going to stand for this."
"These kids deserve this," parent Michelle Hoffman said. "Not only that, but you're putting them in jeopardy of getting abducted through woods, hit by a car, injured, killed."
Kanauss said he would do better in the future when notifying the community of changes. The district is working on its new transportation plan.
