Middletown Schools Talking To Twp. On HS South Busing Request

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The Middletown school district is currently talking to the Township to come up with a solution for the parents requesting a bus to High School South, as they say their children face a dangerous walk to school this fall along Middletown-Lincroft Road.

As of Friday, no solution has been provided.

It is not the job of Middletown Township to provide buses to take Middletown public school students to school. That responsibility falls on the school district. However, Middletown schools have a long-standing policy of not providing busing for students who live less than 2.5 miles from their designated school.

In this case, the students live about 2.2 miles from Middletown High School South. It is more than a dozen students in total, from Four Ponds, Leedsville, Turnberry and the Breaburn area.

One thing the Township may provide is more crossing guards along the students' route. It is unclear if that solution will be acceptable to the teens and their families.

The students will have to walk along Middletown-Lincroft Road. Not only does that road have a 40 mph speed limit, but it is also windy and has uneven, non-contiguous sidewalks. The teens would have to cross Middletown-Lincroft Road to stay on the sidewalk and they will also be walking in the pre-dawn darkness and in the late afternoon come fall.

The crossing at West Front Street is very dangerous, said parents. That is likely where the Township would put the crossing guard.

But adding a wrinkle to this is the fact that some families in Lincroft have been asking for buses to take their kids to South for many years, and have been denied.

"I am one of the parents requesting that busing be provided for this section of Lincroft," said Christy DeMarco. "I do not live in Four Ponds, but on the northern end of Leedsville Drive."

"This is not so much about distance as it is safety. There are routes in Middletown below the distance mark that get busing because they are deemed unsafe. I truly feel this walk falls into that category," she said. "This is a two-mile section of Middletown-Lincroft Rd. that spans from the intersection of West Front St. (where there is no crossing guard, or pedestrian signs/indicators) to Brash Farms. Along this route, there are two pedestrian bridges that are closed at times, especially when there are storms throughout the fall and winter. When they are closed, children would have to exit the sidewalk well before the bridge due to a guard rail (or hop the guard rail) and walk along the almost non-existent shoulder on a 40 mph road (where people are often speeding)."

"By any standard, it is absurd not to consider this route hazardous for children. That is the issue here," said DeMarco.

Board member Frank Capone expressed support for the students and their parents at the most recent Middletown BOE meeting.

"I'm a little concerned," he said. "They are leaving very early in the morning, it's very dark, November, December."

"There is one section that crosses over a bridge that is very dangerous in my opinion," he said. "It takes 40 minutes in a normal day and that's five miles an hour with a backpack on. I think it might be a little excessive. And that is a dangerous bridge with ice and snow. It's a wooden bridge. I really think we need to look at that bridge."

Last winter, the sidewalks along Middletown-Lincroft Road were unshoveled and covered in snow for days.

There are school buses headed to High School South that go up and down this route; however, they are full and beyond capacity, said the school district.

At the BOE meeting, other parents spoke in support of the parents. One woman said when her daughter had to walk to school she was repeatedly cat-called and a boy she didn't like kept following her home from school. She also said her son had to walk to school in a winter snowstorm and he developed bronchitis.

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