New Rochelle’s Assistant Superintendent for Finance John Quinn announced last night that the school district intends to eliminate “yellow bus” transportation for 6th grade students living in New Rochelle but attending private and parochial schools. The cut is part of a broader policy change under which all 6th grade students — public or private — will no longer be entitled to free busing but instead be offered a discounted ten-trip ticket for the Bee Line Bus service.
The change will bring 6th grade students in line with current policy for 7th and 8th grade students who pay $7.00 for a ten trip ticket, a cost of roughly $250 a year per student. The discount is large; the most comparable unsubsidized ticket offered by Bee Line Bus is a 7-Day ticket for $27.00.
Quinn was speaking at the first New Rochelle Board of Education budget review session, held last night at the New Rochelle High School library. The meeting was lightly attended with just a handful of parents on hand. Two board members, Jerome Smith and Cindy Babcock-Deutsch, were not present.
While the policy change will have no significant impact on public school students beyond the increase cost — Bee Line Bus is currently offering bus service to Albert Leonard Middle School and Isaac E. Young Middle School for 6th, 7th and 8th graders — the change will have a major impact on private and parochial school students because Bee Line does not offer direct service to schools other than the two public schools. So, while private and parochial school students will be eligible to purchase the discounted Metro-Cards, few, if any, will be able to use them to get to school each day.
Asked about this bus to nowhere issue during the public comment period, Quinn told one parent “You’ve identified a problem”.
It remains to be seen whether private and parochial school parents will make an issue out of the cut in transportation services as it is, for many families, the only service they receive from the district and so one of the few reasons these families have for voting in favor of the school district budget. Some taxpayers have complained for years about these public school subsidies for parents who do not enroll their children in the public school system.
The planned chnage could run into trouble from a legal challenge. The cut appears to be motivated by a desire to eliminate the cost of providing “yellow bus” service for private and parochial school students. Under New York State law, the school district is required to “provide transportation on an equitable basis and within similar mileage limits to children attending both public and nonpublic schools”. The issue may be whether providing discounted ten-trip tickets is “equitable” when public students can use the tickets to take a bus directly to their school while private and parochial school students cannot because Bee Line does not provide direct service to their schools.
Quinn said he expected to save $517,000 under the new transportation policy, roughly 14.2% of the total preliminary budget cut of $3.65 million announced on Tuesday.
More Free Transportation
What about the issue of continuing to provide free transportation to private schools outside of New Rochelle? New Rochelle Schools pay for significant transportation costs so that private school children are able to attend schools outside New Rochelle. To the best of my knowledge, we are NOT reimbursed at a annual cost that exceeds $3 million. Of note, is that we, New Rochelle Schools, are not legally obligated to to do this. It seems to me that this has been a political decision made several years ago to pacify some residents in this community, who I imagine, since they’re paying tuition already, could certainly pay for transportation or at least reimbursed the district. An honest public discussion about this has not been heard. An honest answer would be desirable for the community. Instead of discussing potential layoffs or hiring freezes, let’s discuss something tangible here! In addition, addressing the very crowded and dangerous buses that leave the corner of Eastchester down North Ave everyday has been brought up before. Are we waiting for something tragic to occur before something is done. I brought this up over a year ago. Ask the kids. Ask the drivers. Do you want pictures?
Martin Sanchez
Transportation Budget 2010-11
The total budget for transportation is $13,632,558.
$807,180 goes to pay for the Bee Line Buses.
Of that about $597,000 is for the subsidized MetroCards. The cards cost $17.89 each; student pays $7.00 and district pays $10.89. The balance is a direct payment to Westchester County.
Therein lies a potential problem with this plan to cut yellow buses if that direct payment of $210K is paid so that Bee Line will run buses to/from the middle schools back out to the neighborhoods of New Rochelle then private and parochial school parents may arguethat it is not equitable to pay 25% of the budget to provide direct service to ALMS and IEYMS but not pay any money to provide direct service to private/parochial schools. If they were to make that case, I suspect they would win that argument in court.
This issue highlight a flaw in the approach the district has taken in preparing the budget and how they deal with New Rochelle generally. In his open letter on the 2010-11 budget, Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak writes about conversations with constituents. He lists the BoE, the Principals, Administrators, the Union and the PTAs. He also mentions “Community Representatives” without specifying who he means but perhaps he means elected officials. It is not clear so let me set that aside for now and just say that unless you work for the district or have children enrolled in the public schools you are not considered a constituent of the school district.
With about 11,000 children in the school and using a figure like 2.4 children per household and 1.5 parents per household these kids represent about 8,000 parents. 8,000 parents and 11,000 children is about 19,000 residents. Throw in another 1,000 residents who work for the district and you get about 20,000, 9,000 of whom are of voting age. Purely as an estimate I will use a figure of 10% as the number who are of age but not eligible to vote. So let’s say that there are 8,000 people in the “constituency”.
The flaw then is the district excludes the vast majority of residents from their “constituency”.
This is precisely why, in my view, the district makes it a point to pacify certain “constituencies” and to run their elections as quietly as possible.
My new phrase for the 2010 election is “you don’t ask your barber if you need a haircut”. That applies so many ways to the schools in New Rochelle including do not ask a district that relies on low voter turnout to run an election. On my list of needed changes I would add that we figure out a way to move our elections to November and have them run by Westchester County.