BOE Seeking To Fix Busing Mix-Up

The Sachem Board of Education yesterday stated that the decision to cut the 4:45 p.m. buses at the middle schools was done in error during the budget process and it will now attempt to make good on that error if possible.

In a discussion led by Board President Robert Scavo, the body came to the conclusion that the buses were erroneously grouped in with the 5 and 6 p.m. high school buses which it cut in order to close the district's budget gap for 2013-14.

A ConnectEd phone message went out to district residents this week stating that the 4:45 p.m middle school buses as well as the 5 and 6 p.m. high school buses were eliminated from service.

Many Sachem residents emailed Patch and took to their own social networking platforms to discuss their displeasure with the decision. Scavo said he too received the phone message and was surprised to hear that the middle school buses were eliminated, because he remembered expressly directing the transportation department not to cut them.

"Going back I remember very vividly during an open session that we had here in the auditorium at Samoset where we said that the board did not take the position to eliminate those buses based on the fact that many students still use them, number one, and number two that it would require some of our students that did not have transportation to cross very dangerous roads," Scavo said. "I've been receiving a lot of phone calls because that wasn't the direction of the board, yet the message went out."

But Transportation Supervisor Stephen Shadbolt said the conversation last spring about cutting costs centered on academic and non-academic busing.

"We couldn't find anything in writing when we went back and looked at [the session minutes]," Shadbolt, who was sitting in the audience, told Scavo. "The recollection of the group was that no academic buses should be cut and the 4:45 [buses] at the middle school contain no academia. The 4:45 was solely for sports and spectators, so it was treated the same as the 5 and 6 o'clock at the high schools."

Superintendent James Nolan said the mix-up stems from the fact that transportation is offered in packages and the 4:45 p.m. middle school buses were part of that package they decided to cut.

"Early on in the budget process we had discussed eliminating certain late bus runs, predominately with the two high schools because the older kids have their own means of transportation that the younger kids do not," Nolan said. "That's where the confusion came in."

Confusion or not, Scavo insisted the 4:45 bus elimination was not the direction of the board and he would like to see the board restore those buses before the school year begins.

That's easier said than done, according to Shadbolt and Board Trustee Anthony Falco. Shadbolt reminded the board that the $44,000 it costs to run the 4:45 service was part of the $100,000 in overall transportation cuts to the Sachem budget, which the public voted to adopt in June. Since the budget can't be revisited, this requires the $44,000 to be moved from one part of the budget into the transportation line. 

"The question is, where are we gonna get it from?" Falco said. "Everybody I hear, now, is running at the bottom line of all their budgets. We got people out there hustling for dollars to make programs work and I agree with you on point, but something's gotta go if we're gonna put back $44,000"

Scavo said the money is available, but that moving the money to transportation involves a personnel matter that couldn't be discussed in public. The board agreed to take the conversation into executive session to be resolved.

Meanwhile Superintendent Nolan said the board will do everything it can, but its only option is to move funds from one part of the budget back into transportation. However, the superintendent remained confident that it could be done. 

"I don't want to commit to anything but I feel pretty strongly that we will restore the 4:45 buses at the middle school, not the 5 and 6 o'clocks at the high school," Nolan said.