UPDATE: Board OKs Bus Solution For CBA, RBC Students

Students from Brick Township who attend Christian Brothers Academy and Red Bank Catholic will have a bus from Brick Township this year, under a contract the Brick Township Board of Education approved Thursday night.

The bus will not be free, but will cost parents slightly more than $500 per student for the school year, according to documents included with the school board agenda.

The contract puts to rest an issue that arose in late July, when parents were notified by the school district that it would no longer provide free busing to students who attend the two Catholic high schools in Monmouth County.

Under state law, a school district must provide either busing or aid in lieu of transportation to students who attend private, charter or Choice schools within 20 miles, door to door, of their home, according to the state Department of Transportation. But that requirement comes with a catch: the cost of providing a bus cannot exceed an amount per child set by the state.

In June the district sought bids for several bus runs through the Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission, but that route was not bid on, interim Superintendent Richard Caldes said. When the district calculated the cost to provide the route -- a cost based only on those students eligible for the busing under the law -- it significantly exceeded the $848 maximum set by the state, he said. The number of students eligible this school year for the busing under the law was 22, Caldes said.

A group of parents met earlier this month to discuss options -- including seeking a contract with a private bus company -- but the prices they were quoted were $45,000 or more, according to Eunice Jinks, the mother of a junior attending CBA who is a spokesperson for the parents. Nearly 50 students from Brick attend the two Catholic high schools and St. James Grammar School in Red Bank, parents have said.

Jinks, who researched the law, found the law allowed for the district to offer a bus on a subscription basis, and when she approached Caldes with that possibility, he was amenable to exploring that option.

The contract to be approved tonight provides for subscription busing for 42 students at a cost of $517.75, according to the document, with the caveat that if any of the 42 students did not participate, the families of the remaining students would have to pick up the costs of those who do not participate.

Families who receive aid in lieu of transportation can apply that aid to the cost of paying for the bus, Caldes said.

“I am truly and pleasantly surprised,” Jinks said earlier in August. “A guy who is willing to change gears to accommodate something they didn’t think of. I didn’t think he or she existed.”

“I hope our group appreciates this,“ she said.