Public school busing program on track
Published on August 4th, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - According to the estimate of the superintendent at the July 29 School Committee meeting, four buses will transport Stoneham public school children to school in the fall, and user fees will cover the entire cost.
Superintendent Joseph Connelly said 414 students have signed up to ride the buses so far.
"With this number if there were no deficient payments or scholarships, we would actually have a surplus of $2,600," Connelly said.
Connelly said the surplus should be enough to cover estimated deficiencies and any needed scholarships.
Families will pay an average of $140 in addition to the $69,000 in the school department budget to pay for the four buses and personnel needed to get the kids to and from school.
Last year when busing was free to students outside of walking distance, 460 students had bus passes. However, administrators and school committee members agreed that not all of these students took the buses regularly.
School Committee Chairwoman Jeanne Craigie praised the business office for offering busing to all children without creating extra drains on the school budget.
"If this works, we might send the program to other communities to use as a model," Craigie said.
Although many townspeople oppose the idea of user fees for busing, as expressed at the May Town Meeting, citizens should note that Massachusetts law is limited when it comes to required busing. School systems must only provide busing to students over two miles away from school; only a handful of kids would get busing if this most extreme legal option was taken.
As of this week the school department is still accepting fees for busing for the fall.
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