District seeks bids for busing private school students

HOLMDEL — Concerned parents filled the library at the William R. Satz School at a recent Board of Education meeting to question school officials about transportation issues for students attending private schools March 11.

"On March 4, I had a meeting with the executive county superintendent of schools and I told her about the situation regarding nonpublic school students and transportation," Holmdel Township School Superintendent Barbara Duncan announced at the meeting. "I was very concerned about [reactions] to the letter we sent home about the process we are going through in order to provide busing to nonpublic school students."

The district has been out of compliance with state mandates because the cost of busing nonpublic school students is more than the state allows public school districts to spend.

According to Business Administrator Michael Petrizzo, the district was over the 2008-2009 transportation allowance of $884 per nonpublic student set by the state by providing approximately 320 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.

At the March 11 meeting, Duncan and Petrizzo clarified what is currently being done to ensure nonpublic school students receive some sort of transportation to their schools in the fall.

According to a Jan. 26 letter to parents of nonpublic school students, the district announced it would only make aid-in-lieu payments and no longer provide busing as of Sept. 1.

A second letter clarifying the issue, dated Feb. 17, stated that the district would pursue bidding for nonpublic school runs, but did not believe the process would be successful based on past bids.

"Considering the actual cost for the current and prior years was more [than] the maximum amount permitted by the state, it is the district's position that this process will not be successful in securing nonpublic school transportation in accordance with the maximum amount permitted under NJSA 18A:39-1a," the Feb. 17 letter states.

But Duncan and Petrizzo assured parents at the March 11 board workshop session that the district will rebid if necessary.

"We will go out to bid March 20 and we will advertise and reach out to all applicable transportation companies to encourage them to bid on the packages," Petrizzo said.

At the same time, he said the district will also notify the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission (MOESC) that transportation of nonpublic school students from Holmdel may be needed for the 2009-10 school year.

"Simultaneously, we will be providing MOESC with information so they can coordinate their bid process," Petrizzo explained. "If the first round of bids is unsatisfactory, we will go out a second time."

One resident who did not wish to give her name, called the transportation situation

in Holmdel "mismanaged." "In the mornings, the buses bypass one another," she said of the nonpublic school runs. "It is not done efficiently. You have buses carrying kids to RBC [Red Bank Catholic High School] crisscrossing one another. Why is it such a problem here? It doesn't seem to be such a problem for other

Duncan told parents that the county superintendent told the district it was being proactive early and that perhaps other school districts were not as active on the issue.

"This office has reviewed the procedures that you intend to take in order to determine if transportation or aid in lieu will be provided for students who attend nonpublic schools," states a letter to Duncan and Petrizzo from Executive County Superintendent of Schools Carole Morris and Executive County School Business Administrator Joseph Passiment Jr. "As indicated, the district fully intends to seek bids for transportation of nonpublic school students. Should those bids not be within the maximum per student expenditure, the district will have MOESC bid on your behalf. If this bid still produces a maximum per student expenditure in excess, then the district will pay aid in lieu."

The letter also reminded the district that the Board of Education is not required to pay the aid in lieu if the vouchers are not filed properly.

"Boards of education may not be required to provide transportation or pay aid in lieu of transportation when the application for transportation and/or payment vouchers are not properly submitted.

Former township Committeeman TerenceWall suggested extending the bidding period to allow the maximum amount of time to submit bids.

"I am concerned about the timing of this," Wall said. "It takes six days for bidders to turn around quotes so bidders may not have a significant amount of time to submit a realistic bid. I think the district would want to have the best opportunity to avoid a no-bid scenario."

Wall suggested extending the deadline to April 5 or April 10.

Petrizzo said it could be looked into.

Wall also asked how parents could track the progress of the bids and was told he could go to the district's administrative offices in town hall and fill out Open Public Records Act forms to obtain the information.

S

chool officials further explained how

the bids are packaged in an effort to attract more bidders.

"We make up packages, and when I say package I mean that RBC, St. James and St. Leo schools are a package, we list the number of students per stop and the number of stops," explained Director of Operations and Maintenance Bill Belicki, who also oversees transportation. "We give that information to the vendor and they route it. We also include a third tier that includes a Holmdel public school run because nonpublic runs are not always as profitable, so we try to make it more attractive with a public school run."

Belicki also explained that bidders also have the option to bid on one package or multiple packages.

Parent Tim Neher said that he felt possibly eliminating school buses for nonpublic school students that would pose a safety problem.

"From a safety standpoint, if you are going to have that many kids driving at that age, there is an issue there," Neher said. "I would rather see kids on the bus."

Another parent, who did not wish to be named, pointed out that parents of nonpublic school students are also taxpayers and they too go to the polls on April 21.

"As a voter, I always voted for the school budgets and never even thought about it, but now with this bus issue, I am going to tell families in similar situations to think about how they vote this spring," he said. "We need to express how important this is, and if we don't have the support of the Board of Education and the district, we will express it at the polls."

Duncan said that she believed other districts are in the same position but may not be as helpful and up front with their parents.

"Every district is in the same position, but other districts may not be telling parents now," she said. "We want more than anything for some creative entrepreneur to come up with a solution and see that there is a need for a bus business in Holmdel. Any interest is more than we had last year."