Millburn Schools Apologize for Busing Problems

The first few days of school have made for a bumpy ride for Millburn School District officials, schools and students, when it comes to busing.

So much so that Dr. Crisfield sent home a public apology and added extra staff to man the phones to field complaints or concerns and has created an email address for parents to send their concerns about busing: busing@millburn.org.

“People’s calls and emails were not getting returned fast enough, leaving the impression we didn’t care, so with a little bit of effort, we could change that quickly,” Crisfield said Thursday afternoon.

On the first day of school, after the first morning run, Crisfield said there were “hiccoughs” that were typical for the first day – a broken down bus, which meant children had to be moved to other buses, making them overcrowded, as well as some late arrivals to school and some late returns home. But by Thursday, it was clear there were enough problems to warrant a note to parents.

“Deerfield buses are arriving at school after the school starts," said parent Andrew Hunn. "Kids are left waiting for buses after school as others are leaving. They are getting home 40 minutes after their scheduled arrival time." 

And by Thursday, the number of the problems had got gotten worse. More parents had complained that their children were late being picked, late to school or late coming home and, in some cases, bus stops were missed altogether.

“Not only was the bus that dropped off my 6-year-old daughter was nearly one hour late today, but the bus driver failed to stop at my daughter's bus stop and let my daughter off the bus, “ said Carolyn Most, who has been an outspoken opponent of subscription busing but who subscribed because her daughter needs to ride the bus.  “I literally had to run down the street in the pouring rain to the next stop to get my daughter off the bus. …

“After a year of riding the bus with no incidents, today my daughter was extremely upset when she got home," Most told the district in an email. "She was crying and she was scared. Not a great way to start the school year.”

Crisfield apologized for the “busing mishaps” in an email he sent out to all parents on Thursday afternoon. He also stressed that the busing problems had nothing to do with the change to subscription busing.

“Just about every problem you could have – we were hearing,” he told Patch. “The problems spanned a number of areas.

“Busing start-up, in every district (including Millburn), and virtually every year, is usually just this side of chaotic,” Crisfield told parents. “There are too many variables, some human, some not, that need ironing out before routines and patterns get developed.  But this year, we have experienced a particularly acute set of problems that have been very frustrating to parents, students and staff.”

Crisfield said the busing contractor's lack of preparation and a general breakdown in communication channels, led to the problems.

”These are not excuses, but rather reasons, and they are things we are addressing on a top priority basis until we can get them fixed,” he said in the letter to parents.

The company, Barker Bus Company out of Bridgewater, NJ, has been the bus company for Millburn for a number of years, but this year, apparently, had hired a lot of new bus drivers, Crisfield said, and had not done enough dry runs of the routes. Barker could not be reached for comment.

“To be fair to the contractor, the weather with the hurricane had precluded as many dry runs as usual, but they could have done better, and we’re not interested in excuses, we're just looking to fix the problem,” Crisfield told Patch, adding that the district has had face-to-face meetings with the company and will continue to monitor the situation daily “until we get the kinks worked out.”

“We have impressed upon them the urgency of the situation and our expectation that they need to do whatever it takes to get these problems fixed ASAP,” Crisfield said in a letter.

The school district’s subscription busing plan also began for the first time this year, but Crisfield said that has had nothing to do with the busing problems.

The total number of students who paid to ride the bus are fewer than the total number who were part of the courtesy busing of years’ past, Crisfield said. But eventually, when the dust settles, the number who pay to ride the bus and will actually ride will be greater than the number who actually rode it in the past when it was a free service.

“We think when people are paying for it, they are more likely to use it,” he said. “So we think that the number who are actually riding the bus now will be higher than it was last year.”

There are new kids who haven’t been bus riders before and aren’t used to the routine, but that is true every year, he said.

“People should remember that we always have these problems at the beginning of the year, but this year it was a perfect storm that led to more of them,” he said.