Residents to Vote on School Transportation Change in Busing Policy Required by State Law

By Eileen Brennan

The Manhasset Board of Education has voted to place a transportation referendum before the voters on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1998. The proposed referendum asks for public approval to provide transportation to all elementary children in grades 1-6 with no mileage limits. All kindergartners are presently bused regardless of distance of their homes to the school. The vote on the referendum was four-to-one, with Board President Vincent Calluzzo and board mMembers Barbara Donno, Thomas Killeen and Elizabeth Masone voting in favor of the referendum and William D'Antonio voting against it. Mr. Calluzzo said that "after 30 years of a practice it would be arrogant for a board of education to change it on its own." Mr. D'Antonio believes that the board has not given sufficient attention to other possibilities, such as possibly reducing the distance for transporting children so that the Shelter Rock children could legally continue to be bused or appealing to the State for a review of this situation. He also thinks the baord should have requested "feedback from the community" before scheduling a referendum.

The referendum will reverse a policy that has been in effect since Shelter Rock School was built in 1970. At that time the board of education decided to transport bus transportation to all children because of the location of the school on Shelter Rock Road, a busy and dangerous thoroughfare. When Shelter Rock School was built, The Hamlet and Gracewood had not yet been built, nor had The Greens and The Estates on the west side of the road. Guidelines generally provide for transportation for all children in kindergarten; transportation for children in grades from one to three who live 1/2 mile away from the school; for children in grades four to six who live 3/4 mile away from the school and for students in grades seven through 12 who live a mile away from school.

Munsey Park students have been transported according to those guidelines. What has recently come to light is a state regulation that requires all schools with the same student bodies (e.g., K-6) to be treated in the same manner. In other words, if all students are given transportation to Shelter Rock, all students must be offered transportation to Munsey Park, whether they need it or not. If the voters turn down the proposal in the referendum, those students at Shelter Rock who are presently being given transportation to the school will lose it. This includes students on Pond Hill Road, Allen Drive and Udall Drive on the west side of Shelter Rock Road.

According to Ira Chudd, Manhasset Schools' director of transportation, transporting all Munsey Park students would require three additional buses and drivers at a cost of $126,000 a year. Mr. Chudd says that there would be a certain amount of flexibility in the use of the buses. For example, they could be used to drive athletes to and from after-school games. Asked whether the New York State Department of Education would not be responsive to an appeal of the guidelines in a situation such as Manhasset faces, Mr. Chudd said that the only exception is if a school is in what the DOE calls a "child safety zone." Although it is apparent that drivers on Shelter Rock Road exceed the posted speed limit, the DOE only takes into account the posted speed limit and the fact that there is a traffic light on Shelter Rock Road at the school and does not designate it a "child safety zone." M. Shane Higuera, Manhasset's assistant superintendent for business, says that if the proposal to bus all elementary students is defeated, the district will probably ask Nassau County to supply a crossing guard for Shelter Rock.

Mr. Chudd says that if the referendum is defeated, there will be no saving to the district over and above the additional $126,000 which will be spent because there are children who attend Shelter Rock School who are entitled to bus transportation on buses that also pick up children not entitled to it. For example, children who live in the farther reaches of The Hamlet are more than a 1/2 mile away from the school. As one mother stated, "The buses will pick up those children and have to pass by children on their way to the school."

Whatever the voters decide on Jan. 20, it will go into effect immediately, The cost of providing transportation for the remainder of the fiscal school year will not exceed $63,000. Mr. Higuera says that while the referendum reads that "such funds shall be raised by a levy of a tax upon the taxable property of the district," the district's fund balance will cover costs for the remainder of the 1997-1998 school year.

The board also voted 5-0 to reject a proposal to bus students to the middle school and high school. This had been requested by one parent whose family lives in Terrace Manor.

The referendum will be voted on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1998 from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the Manhasset High School gymnasium. Voters must be registered to vote.