Nonpublic schools may lose busing

Starting this fall, students traveling to nonpublic schools will most likely not receive transportation on the district's dime.

According to a Jan. 23 letter from Holmdel Township School District Superintendent Barbara Duncan, "Effective Sept. 1, the district will only make aid-in-lieu payments and no longer provide busing for nonpublic school students."

"Basically, we were not in compliance with state mandates," explained Michael Petrizzo, business administrator for the district. "By providing nonpublic school students with transportation, it was costing us more than the state allows for public schools to spend on nonpublic students' transportation."

According to Petrizzo, the district was exceeding the 2008-09 transportation fee allowance of $884 per nonpublic student, set by the state by providing students that reside within the district with transportation to area nonpublic schools such as St. Benedict School in Holmdel, St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel, Red Bank Catholic High School and Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft.

"We have been analyzing this over the past few years," Petrizzo said. "The process takes a long time and we usually know what the cost will be around August, and that has always been too late to simply pull the rug out from under parents' feet. Parents with children who attend nonpublic schools are community stakeholders too, and we are trying to notify them earlier so they can be prepared."

A Feb. 17 clarification letter from Duncan's office to parents explained the process the district must adhere to in order to provide busing or aid-in-lieu payments for nonpublic school students.

The process, the letter states, will begin with the district going out to bid for nonpublic school transportation for the 2009- 10 school year. Upon completion of the bid process, "If the district does not receive any bids or the bids received are in excess of the maximum amount permitted under NJSA 18A:39-1a, the bids will be rejected."

If and when the bids are rejected, the district will contact the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission (MOESC) "to utilize their coordinated transportation services to secure the applicable nonpublic school transportation for the 2009-10 school year," the letter states. "If MOESC is unable to provide the nonpublic school transportation in accordance with the maximum amount permitted under NJSA 18A:39-1a, the district cannot accept these services."

After the previous options are exhausted, Petrizzo said, the district will provide aid-in-lieu payments.

According to a 2006 report by the Transportation Task Force of the Commission on Business Efficiency of the Public Schools, the limit on the amount a school district may spend to provide transportation to nonpublic school students is known as the maximum cost per pupil or aid-in-lieu amount.

"When the cost of providing the transportation exceeds the maximum cost, a payment equal to the limit is paid to the parent or guardian of the student in lieu of transportation," the report explains.

"Parents fill out what is known as a B6T form from the district and then they will receive a check from the district. This is aid-in-lieu," Petrizzo said. "The current value for 2008-09 is $884 per student. We believe there may be an increase for 2009- 10."

Petrizzo said that the expected increase wouldn't change things.

"We won't know what the costs will be this year until the numbers come in," he said. "We don't see it helping, but if it were to help, we'd be more than happy to help out parents with transportation, but what we have seen over the past several years is that it is not probable."

Petrizzo said that there are approximately 320 students in Holmdel that attend nonpublic schools. Of those 320 students, 120 students receive aid-in-lieu payments already, Petrizzo added.

"We have a considerable amount of students who were already being provided with aid-in-lieu payments and only ever received those," Petrizzo said. "It is the 200 students that received busing from the district that we are worried about. We want their parents to be prepared to find transportation for their students come September."

Petrizzo said that the elimination of nonpublic school transportation is a cost savings, one that the county is in support of.

"It would not shock me to see more and more districts making this move," he said. "The Monmouth County Office [of the state Department of Education] is aware of this and the executive business administrator is supportive of this because it does realize a cost savings."

Moving forward, Petrizzo said that MOESC is aware of the situation.

"MOESC is aware and they are also aware that the district wants to know sooner rather than later so hopefully we can know what the process will be for certain earlier for parents," Petrizzo said.

The district, Petrizzo said, is obligated to adhere to state mandates and regulations, even if it means cutting transportation for nonpublic school students.

"With the new accountability regulations in place, county administrators are looking at everything from regionalization to transportation," Petrizzo explained. "We could not just not address this because we would then be willingly not in compliance with state regulations."