Salem Officials Talk Proposed Changes To School Transportation

SALEM, MA — Salem School Committee member Beth Anne Cornell and Superintendent Steve Zrike detailed proposed changes that will provide Salem families with a transportation policy that is more defined for the upcoming school year during an online forum Wednesday afternoon.

They said the new proposal — which includes the removal of all transportation fees — includes better documenting the abstract policy they said the district has followed in recent years.

"This is to make sure there is transparency or clarity around who gets a bus and who doesn't get a bus," Cornell said. "You might get a bus and your neighbor might not get a bus and you wouldn't know why. This provides a level of transparency that we haven't had in the past."

Both Cornell and Zrike said the School Committee is looking for feedback on the current proposal so that any changes can be considered and made in advance of the April 25 School Committee meeting. The Committee will then discuss the final proposal and hold a vote on implementing it at its May 2 meeting.

"Most of the information that people are now getting was always part of the policy," Zrike said. "It just wasn't articulated in the document itself."

One significant change is that those who are not state-mandated to be offered transportation will be considered based on a tiered structure of economic need, unsafe walking zones and those riding with younger siblings —not based on who is willing and able to pay a fee.

"On a basic level that's not fair and equitable," Cornell said of abandoning the fee-based model. "One family on a street can pay the fee and one can't and this family gets to ride the bus and the other family can't."

Cornell noted that the Salem transportation offerings are "more generous" than the state mandates.

Under the new proposal, children in grades kindergarten through third grade who live more than one mile from their school, children in grades 3through 5 who live more than 1.5 miles from their school and students in grades 6 through 12 who live more than two miles from their school will be entitled to mandatory transportation — as well as those requiring transportation because of a disability through their Individualized Education Plan.

The full proposal can be found here and the current policy can be found here.

Zrike said frequently asked questions that have come up in transportation discussions involve what constitutes an unsafe walking zone, how those zones might change because of snow-covered roads and sidewalks in the winter and how crossing guards are deployed.

"We are going to dig in on how we effectively use crossing guards," Zrike said, "because they are vital even for kids who are walking a short distance."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)