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Date: 9/25/2019
EAST LONGMEADOW – Since the school year began Aug. 27, some parents in East Longmeadow say their children have had to put up with overcrowded buses that show up late or not at all.
Emily Stoughton is in sixth grade at Birchland Park Middle School. She said that for the first two weeks of school the morning bus was “really crowded” and that she often had to sit halfway off of the seat in the aisle, as kids were squeezed in three to a seat.
A full-size bus from Lower Pioneer Valley Collaborative (LPVEC), which provides buses for East Longmeadow, has a maximum capacity of 71 passengers, which allows for 13 inches per person, said LPVEC Executive Director Andrew Churchill. Emily’s mother, Elizabeth Stoughton, said the bus driver informed her that there were 72 children on the bus when her daughter was picked up on the morning of Sept. 11.
“We try to never be close to the 71, especially on high school and middle school runs,” as those students are physically larger than elementary grade students, said Superintendent Gordon Smith. However, Becky Becker, transportation manager for the East Longmeadow School District pointed out, “legally you can,” fit three students to a seat.
To ride a school bus in the district, a student must be registered and assigned to a bus. The assignment is reflected on their bus pass and registering allows the district to keep track of how many students are on each bus. He said 65 passengers have a pass for bus number 9, the bus that Emily rides.
“Certainly that's something we’re always looking at,” Smith said of overcrowding on buses. He said the district implements steps when there is a complaint to make sure it is “handling passengers in a safe and efficient way so that people are comfortable going to and from school.” Smith said it is easier if parents with complaints call the district offices so that the situation can be handled.
While Becker told Reminder Publishing that there hadn’t been any complaints about the overcrowding, Elizabeth, however, said that she had complained several times.
Becker told Reminder Publishing she rode Bus 9 on the morning of Sept. 13 and reported only 45 passengers. However, Elizabeth claimed there were less passengers at that time because kids have stopped riding the buses.
“It all of a sudden isn't crowded because kids got disgusted and stopped riding the bus,” responded Elizabeth. “This is what the transportation manager does every year. She never moves anyone and waits for enough students to get disgusted with overcrowdedness and they stop riding the bus.” Emily also alleged that Becker got off the bus before all of the students had been picked up.
The Stoughtons are not the only family frustrated with the school buses.
Gina Lamoureux is the mother of two Meadowbrook Elementary School students. For them, the problem has not been with overcrowding, but with the bus stops.
On the first day of school this year, she said she arrived at the bus stop at 8:15 a.m. and “waited with kids and 10 to 12 other families,” but the bus never came. At first, she was allegedly told by the transportation department that the bus had come, but later said she was told the stop had been forgotten. Lamoureux said “she understood” since it was the first day of classes.
Since then, the bus regularly picks up her children, but arrives at 9 a.m., nearly 10 minutes after the scheduled pick up time, and just five minutes before school begins. Lamoureux claims her children were marked tardy several times at the start of the school year. Becker, however, said that if a bus is late, the school is informed, and the students are, “absolutely excused, without a doubt.”
Lamoureux explained that she tried driving her children to school, but because students aren’t allowed out of the car line until 8:50 a.m., she was late to her job as a teacher in Springfield.
Lamoureux stated that she reached out to Becker several times. She noted that “five buses pass her street” earlier than the one that picks her children up. She shared that she asked if one of the five could stop. Instead, she said Becker suggested that Lamoreaux drive her kids to a bus stop to wait with friends, however the family is new to the area and do not know many other families.
On Sept. 20, Lamoureux reached out to Becker again. This time she said the suggested solution was to “drive to a stop roughly one mile from their home to be picked up by a bus at approximately 8:30 a.m.” The following Monday, the bus arrived, according to Lamoureux, but the driver was unaware they would be taking on new passengers.
“When I call, she’s helpful,” Lamoureux said of Becker, “but helpful to the point of ‘where can I bring my child to get on the bus.’” She continued to state that she doesn’t expect the schedules to change to accommodate her but added, “for the amount of money that we pay, my kids shouldn’t be late to school and they should be picked up in front of our house.”
Both Lamoureux and the Stoughtons pay $540 per school year for their kids to ride the bus.
The district rules regarding the buses dictate that families of students in grades kindergarten through six that live closer than two miles from the school must pay a fee of $270 per child per school year, with a cap of $540 per family per school year. For those that live farther than two miles in those grades, or for those who receive free or reduced lunch, bus transportation is free. Families of students in grades seven through 12, except for those receiving free or reduced lunch, are required to pay the fee.
“If their kid stops riding the bus because there’s nowhere to sit, they should be reimbursed,” Elizabeth said of families who pay for the service.
Although the overcrowding has lessened, Elizabeth said, “I am still writing a letter to the superintendent and transportation and the head of LPVEC about the overcrowdedness and the other issues – the inability for buses to be on time because the routes are too long.”
“The communication is the problem,” Lamoureux said about the alleged transportation issues between families in town and the district.