Should Busing Be Available to all District Students?

The Scarsdale School Board and Superintendent stuck to their established agenda rather than agree to conduct a re-examination of the district's busing policy at their meeting on 11-16. At a previous session, Quaker Ridge residents Melissa Mantzouris and Mauri Zemachson made a case for the district to supply busing to all district students, rather than only those who live more than 1.5 miles away from school. Board President Lee Maude reported that they received 40 letters on the issue but said that they had not yet responded to any of the letters. They planned to do so after the evening's meeting when Assistant Superintendent for Business Stuart Mattey was scheduled to present information on the issue. Maude also reminded the community that the Board was operating to fulfill the goals laid out in the 2015-18 Transition Plan and would like to maintain their focus on those objectives.

During the public comment period Melissa Mantzouris addressed the Board and asked them to find a "better solution," arguing that 2/3 of the current transportation budget is used to send district children to private schools where they receive door-to-door service. The district is required by law to provide busing for private school students, but there have been questions raised as to whether this busing is organized in the most efficient way possible.Her full statement is below.

Later in the meeting Mattey presented information that estimated it would cost $3-$5 million to provide full or almost full busing. Additional costs include personnel, buses, and transportation costs. He also stated that a necessary first step would be to hire a transportation consultant to study the current state of affairs to determine where efficiencies might be gained and to provide more information on changing the busing policy to be more inclusive.

A discussion among Board members followed about how adding busing to their agenda would require time and attention to the detriment of other established priorities. The Board and Administration agreed that their plate is already full with an ambitious program. Further the cost associated with more busing would have to be thrown into the mix of other demands already in discussion for next year's budget. Board members also raised the point that there were many elements beyond busing that could improve transportation to schools such as clearly marked bike lanes, crosswalks and improved sidewalks all of which would have to be evaluated by the Village.

Dr. Hagerman made the point several times that the priorities for the Transition Plan were determined with community input and agreed upon by the Board. This issue, while important, was not something identified as a top priority for the next three years. Some Board members felt that regardless, it may be useful to commission an efficiency study to identify some quick fixes to achieve economies and to be used as a basis for decisions in the future. Mr. Mattey guessed the cost of the study would be about $10,000.

At the end of the discussion the Board concluded that they would focus on the Transition Plan as presented and add no additional priorities unless the situation is an emergency. However, Mattey may end up proposing the transportation efficiency study as a piece of the budget for 2016-17 and the Board will vote on whether or not to include that item in the budget along with other budget items.

Review the discussion here and add your comments below. Do you think the busing policy should be revised? Do you think the busing policy should be added to the list of items in the 2015-2018 Transition Plan?

Statement from Melissa Mantzouris

"Good Evening, My Name is Melissa Mantzouris. I live at 6 Harvest Drive. I am here to present a follow up presentation around our initial request to change Scarsdale's current busing policy. Last month, Mauri Zemachson and I spoke during the public session and asked the BOE to review and revise the district's current policy to 100% busing for all Scarsdale public school students.

Since the last board meeting a lot has happened. After the minutes were emailed and published, Mauri and I received a huge outpouring of support on this matter. Many families are impacted by this policy and feel the additional cost to either utilize private busing or pay for childcare to commute students is a burden and a cost they were unaware of until they moved into their homes.

The initial response from the Board was that at this time the Board chooses to not make any changes, and the BOE referenced the Epaper on transportation located on the Board of Education web page.

I do agree that there is a financial impact on the district to make such a great change but with small changes and gradual adjustments we can begin to move in the right direction. As of now there have been NO changes made to improve or amend the busing policy since the 1991. It was in 1991, the BOE transitioned to an in-house transportation system.

The transportation review that was done in 2013, mentions the high cost of running the buses and the changes in reimbursement from NYS. It also mentions that 2/3's of the total budget is busing to private school students. We do agree that private school students should be provided busing however this is an area where we can find a way to make small and incremental changes in order to provide the same opportunity to our public school children. Currently private school children are offered door to door busing, unlike public school children that use assigned bus stops. Having my children bused to school by private school busing is on average additional cost of $4,000 - $5,000 a year and this cost is not tax-refundable nor a guarantee year to year.

There has to be a way for the Board of Education to find better solutions for our students. In the Oct 25th 2013 Scarsdale Inquirer, there is an article discussing busing. Linda Purvis was quoted as saying that the out-of-district busing was "extremely inefficient". I also know that Stuart Mattey comes from a district that just changed its busing policy to offer 100% busing for all students. I hope that with his experience he can work to make the 2/3's of the budget more efficient and perhaps find a way to improve our current situation.

In the same article board member Mr. Natbony states, "he would love to fund an area that supports our teachers more..." but as discussed at the last Board of Education meeting, while we are very competitive in the Scarsdale students' academic scores and take pride in our reputation as a high achieving academic district, we do need to think about the students and their safety, the families that work very hard to live here and give their children this education. This should not be on the backs of parents who have this as the only way to get their kids to and from school each day.

This Board has many fresh faces that were not here in 2013, we have a new Superintendent with great experience in other educational settings. We also have Stuart Mattey, assistant to the Superintendent who has experience working on financial policies around district busing.

While at this time there is no formal petition, I assure you there is tremendous support on this issue. I ask that you reconsider your decision to not move forward. I ask that you find a place in your 2015-2018 Transition Plan to improve and amend Scarsdale's out of date busing policy."