Parents in a panic over how kids will get to school Those living more than 20 miles away won't even get aid BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer MILLSTONE - More than 300 residents signed a petition urging the Millstone Township Board of Education to provide transportation for its nonpublic school students. Resident Kevin Abernathy presented the petition to the board at its July 23 meeting. The petition said the lack of busing to nonpublic schools poses an extreme detriment and hardship to parents and students. The board meeting was well attended by parents of private school students. Business Administrator Brian Boyle told them that the school district had not received any bids for its private school busing routes and that information on rebidding would not be available until Aug. 1. Abernathy urged the board to take immediate action on the busing situation. He asked why the district did not suggest bidding out bulk runs to the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission (MOESC), which is handling the bidding for the district's out-of-district bus routes. Boyle said bulk runs would be included in the rebidding process. He explained that bulk runs mean that buses would not stop at every school bus stop but would instead stop in four or five sections of town. If the district cannot provide transportation to its out-of-district students for the 2007-08 school year, the state would allow it to provide aid in lieu of transportation funding at $859 per pupil. However, students who live more than 20 miles away from the school they attend would not be eligible to receive it. Abernathy asked if the 20-mile limit is "portal to portal." Boyle said the distance is not as the crow flies but is measured along roadways. In the past, Boyle said the school district's transportation coordinator drove the routes to check the distances, he said. If a parent took issue with a measurement, the district asked to see proof. Board Attorney Douglas Kovats said that the judicial interpretation of the 20-mile stipulation has been that the 20 miles is measured along established routes. Boyle said that the school district currently has 36 buses of its own. Before the new middle school on Baird Road came on board this year, the district buses all originated from the former middle school site on Millstone Road. "Now, they will have to go out and come back for a school three miles away," Boyle said. From the late 1990s to 2001, all students in kindergarten through eighth grade were picked up and dropped off at the same times on the same buses. Boyle said the buses would drop students off at the middle school and then drop off the elementary school students. "We discussed doing that with scheduling the new [middle] school, but academically, it's not good," he said. "You lose 20-30 minutes with the students. We don't think it is academically wise to do that." The district has put the three schools into the same schedule in which it previously had two schools, Boyle said. Each school is scheduled to start and end 40-55 minutes apart to keep the amount of time students have to sit and wait on the buses at a minimum. Public school parent Suzanne Lux said the new school schedule could result in a lot of working parents having a new gap of time where they need child care. Lux also expressed concern about the possibility of outsourcing the bus routes. "Millstone has two-lane roads with no shoulders," she said. "Our bus drivers know our roads and will get children to school safely." Lux alleged that "horror stories" about kids left alone on buses usually involve outsourced drivers. A private school parent told the board that she just got her first part-time job in 22 years, but may have to give it up if she has to transport her child to school. "I'm between a rock and a hard place," the parent said. Township Committeeman Steven Sico, the committee's liaison to the board, said he has received a lot of phone calls and e-mails about the busing issue. "Parents are panicking - and rightfully so," he said. Resident Ron Schlegel said he does not see any winners in the busing situation. He said that taxpayers would have to foot the bill for private school students to attend public school if the district has transportation problems. "The biggest losers are the students," he said. "They love their schools. It's a turmoil for them."