Late Busing Approved for Middle Schools, Elementary Still an Option

The next time the Howell meets, the 2011-2012 school year will be underway making Wednesday's meeting the last chance to get things in place before students report.

One of the items on the agenda was a discussion about bringing back late buses to allow students to take part in extracurricular activities without parents having to be responsible for transportation. Superintendent Enid Golden said it had been three years since the district had offered the busing and she was hoping that with a return of increased , more students would be able to get to and from the schools. 

Golden said with children's parents working it can make it difficult to get the students time to take part in the activities. "A lot of children just can't participate without the busing" she said. The board and the administration, she said, are "very interested in maximizing participation in the after school activities. 

While the proposal was eventually adopted, it was not taken in its original form or without at least a few questions. With a price tag of more than $100 thousand for busing after school activities at both the elementary and middle school levels, there was a decision made that the buses for younger students could wait. The middle schools, it was suggested, need the buses first because of tryouts for the sports starting in Sept. And with just the three schools, the price for those buses is considerably lower at right around $40 thousand. 

One board member who raised questions about the additional busing was Mary Cerretani. "In the past afternoon school buses have not been utilized," she said. "I said way back when and I'm going to say it again tonight they were not utilized."

Board Secretary Ron Sanasac said that the buses may not have apeared to have been fully utilized because the number of students was too many for the smaller vehicles but not enough to fill a full sized bus. "You have to send the big bus in case you get 13 (students), but a big bus with only 13 students look empty," he said. "Sometimes the perception of empty is based on scheduling needs and what equipment we own and have available. It's a difficult balancing act that way."

Golden said she was in favor of keeping track of the usage of the buses as a way to monitor whether it should be kept up in the future. She also said that in addition to putting the program in front of the finance committee she would also poll the elementary schools to see if they would be interested in the buses.

In addition to the return of the after school buses, this year also marks the of extra curriculars, including sports without having a pay to play requirement.