Bus crunch riles yeshiva parents

Responding to the complaints of yeshiva parents that their children’s rides to and from school were taking way too long, the Lawrence Union Free School District and the Independent Coach bus company worked over the Jewish holidays to make the runs more efficient and the trips shorter.

Superintendent Gary Schall said four buses were added and that routes were changed for some students. Also, because the yeshivas were closed, drivers had time to conduct practice runs and coordinate drop-offs and pickups at schools that are closest to one another.

Lawrence’s transportation system is complex. More than 7,500 students are bused to more than 75 schools across Long Island and into Brooklyn and Queens, along more than 450 routes. Schall blamed a willingness to accommodate registrants after the April 1 deadline for this year’s problems, because the late registrations necessitated pickups that weren’t included on the initial route lists. He said that the district would hold to the deadline next year.

The Jewish holidays “gave the district time to regroup and look to see where the problems were,” Schall said. Students returned to the yeshivas on Monday.

“We have a fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers, and don’t add buses until we demonstrate a need,” Schall said, explaining that the district added four vehicles to help alleviate the travel-time issues. Each bus costs $25,000, he said.

Angered by drivers who didn’t know their routes and delays that in some cases had their children on buses for more than 90 minutes, parents overwhelmed the district’s private-school liaison, Sarah Weis, with calls and emails in the first three weeks of school last month.

Lawrence resident Miles Fisher’s daughter attends North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Lake Success. Until this week, her trip to school began at 6:25 a.m. and didn’t end until 8 a.m., when school starts. On the way home, her journey began at 4:45 p.m., and she didn’t get home until 6:20 p.m., Fisher said, adding that last year his daughter had a 50-minute ride.

In the district-bus company discussions, the route was modified, with two children moved to another bus, and on Monday Fisher’s daughter’s ride was 10 minutes shorter. He is hoping for a trip that is no longer than an hour. State education law has no mandated maximum length of a bus ride, but according to the State Education Department, an hour-and-a-half trip isn’t unreasonable, depending on the situation.

“We want what is best for all the kids,” said Fisher. He also advocates “reverse busing” for some of the longer routes: The first children on the bus in the morning would be the first dropped off on the way home.

Schall said that reversing a route — as is done in the Hewlett-Woodmere district, which also uses Independent Coach — is a legitimate request, but it would have to be analyzed.

Joe DiBartolo, Hewlett-Woodmere’s business administrator, who oversees the district’s transportation system, said that the district, which transports 2,500 students to 90 schools on 250 different routes, uses reverse busing only when “it is the most efficient way and makes sense.”

Michael Fabrizio, vice president of Independent Coach, said that everything is being reviewed and adjustments are being made to ensure that bus runs proceed more smoothly the rest of the school year.

“It’s complex. It’s not your typical school district,” Fabrizio said of Lawrence and its volume of students and routes. “We saw where the problems were, and we’re ironing them out.”

A version of this story first appeared in the Nassau Herald.