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Date: 9/12/2023
HOLYOKE — With a new policy having gone into effect for the new school year that limits who can ride the bus to school, parents have grabbed the attention of the City Council, and its Sept. 5 meeting dealt with addressing and trying to resolve this issue.
Parents of students impacted by this change in radius deciding on who is eligible for busing to school protested outside of City Hall the week prior and joined this meeting with more comments for the council itself through public comment, which led to discussion among the council. The guidelines say the district is only offering transportation services to students living outside of a certain radius of the school. This has created some gray area as concerned parents feel while in the radius, their children still need the transportation.
With the council set to discuss how to secure the reinstatement of bus services for Lyman Terrace as soon as possible as a matter of public safety, public comment dominated the issue and the council started discussions immediately after hearing from residents.
This has been a service the neighborhood has received for the past 20 years before the radius change for this new school year.
“We are looking forward to hear the resolution of this issue. I just want to let you know that my kids do need the bus,” said President of the Lyman Terrace Parent Association Iris Espada. “There’s a lot of issues that need to be taken into consideration before that transportation was taken away from there.”
Another resident expressed it was a safety concern as well as these students would be better off getting bused as opposed to having to walk or get dropped off by their parents.
“In terms of the need of, not only the parents of Lyman Terrace, but the school bus, it has to do with the safety of our students, and their families and it also has to do with the quality of life in our community,” explained the resident.
More residents expressed similar concerns and asked the council to address the issues for the children.
“Transportation is a human right,” said resident J.R. Rivera. “A lot of these kids have disabilities because they are disenfranchised, so what is to be done in the winter and the summer when they need that transportation? More needs to be done for our children of Holyoke.”
Prior to the meeting, Mayor Joshua Garcia, Superintendent Anthony Soto and other city officials met with the group of parents, who had protested the week prior, to listen and address their concerns and begin looking at what can be done to resolve it.
When opened to discussion among the council, multiple councilors expressed urgency in resolving the issue for the sake of students.
At-Large Councilor Kevin Jourdain started discussions by noting the City Council had no say in this new change to radius dictating eligibility for school transportation. He added if they were taking on responsibility of bus planning across the city’s schools, they needed say over this process from parents input, as he feels it is a collaborative effort.
“To have no input, no say, you just hear about it third hand that your kids are without a bus — and school has already started so this is daily affecting people, that’s not the way we should be doing business in the city of Holyoke,” Jourdain said. “We need to immediately fix this problem. Get this bus tomorrow as far as I’m concerned.”
Jourdain said getting a bus over ASAP was important before discussions continued, but that seemed to be easier said than done. Jourdain did add the City Council was not poised to have another meeting until October, so he was trying to meet the expectations of residents quickly instead of waiting for a process where the council may not be able to vote on a decision for another month.
“This bus should be put back tomorrow, and we can figure this all out. School Department can come in, we can have a couple meetings and get input,” Jourdain said. “If this City Council’s gonna be involved, we’re going to do it the right way and get citizen input.”
While councilors agreed a change was needed and there was urgency for it, it would be difficult to resolve overnight due to the processes and further discussions needed across the city. Ward 6 Councilor Juan Anderson Burgos said parents all received a letter on this decision in January as part of the school’s announcement of its rezoning process.
Anderson Burgos said while this is the case, it still means a lot that these students are facing safety issues without the proper transportation to school.
“Do they need this bus? Absolutely, but to say that they never received anything, and it was out of the blue, that is false,” Anderson Burgos said.
Anderson Burgos added he, Ward 1 Councilor Jenny Rivera, At-Large Councilor Israel Rivera, At-Large Councilor Jose Maldonado Velez and Holyoke School Committee member Mildred Lefebvre met with the constituents concerned for their children over the issue.
“We sat there for over an hour and I heard this woman basically crying. So, Is the need dire? Absolutely. It is 100% dire. To say it’s like a light switch — let’s just do it tomorrow, you’re sending a false pretense. It’s as if it’s doable, and it’s much more complicated than that,” said Anderson Burgos.
Anderson Burgos also cited campaign season as an unexpected factor into these discussions, as he felt some councilors and a public speaker who noted he was running for Ward 1 during his comments, were exploiting people’s feelings related to the issue and their children.
“It needs to stop, because you’re separating the community and you’re separating the people of this community. These politic games need to stop,” Anderson Burgos said.
He added the council, while not directly involved with the new radius guideline related to transportation to school, was still responsible for the issue due to their cuts to the budget that impact and forced the school district to create their own cost savings.
Jourdain responded by saying to Anderson Burgos the council does not directly vote on a line item like school transportation, so to suggest the council was involved directly was inaccurate.
“People cannot make accusations and not have facts to back them up,” Jourdain said.
Anderson Burgos called Jourdain a hypocrite for the comment and said he could have been involved with the meeting councilors had with the affected neighborhood already.
Jourdain continued, adding that the City Council has no line item authority over the school budget, no vote ever taking place regarding the school transportation budget, and that the City Council approves the macro-multi tens of millions of dollars line item for the overall school budget.
“I wish we had more authority over the school department budget quite frankly. One of the concerns expressed in the past is that we have a school receivership and we’ve lost local control. Even our own School Committee who used to have that authority, that was taken away from them and today, nobody has that. We can only approve the macro number,” Jourdain said. “So the point I was making is if it’s going to be the City Council taking the blame, then I want us to have that input with our citizens to come in and approve this.”
Jourdain continued by saying if the district wanted this bus back they could do it by tomorrow. He added for the record, he received a phone call the morning from Ward 1 Councilor Rivera on three hours’ notice for the meeting with the parents in discussion.
“Regrettably I was not able to leave work to come to a meeting at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, otherwise I would have loved to come,” Jourdain said.
He added his comments weren’t political or in the vein of campaigning as the issue at hand was substantive issues involving parents wanting busing for their children.
“In the meantime I just want to make sure everyone understands, this council won’t meet again for another month and to have this lingering out there with no bus because someone’s waiting for an appropriation from us for another month, I don’t think is the appropriate way. The people in charge need to divert the assets around in order to fund the bus and get that done as soon as possible,” Jourdain said.
At-Large Councilor Israel Rivera thanked residents for organizing to bring attention to the issue and councilors for passionate debate and discussion. He said he “wholeheartedly” agrees with getting the neighborhood their bus back ASAP.
“This was always in the budget, and it feels like it all of a sudden changed,” Rivera said. “Ultimately there is a lot of historical contexts that belongs with this conversation that a lot of bits and pieces need to be put together to be understood. It is a simple conversation, the kids need a ride, but ultimately at Lawrence School, there’s a lot of kids who need a ride too, at Donahue School there are a lot of kids who need a ride, as well as Sullivan and a variety of other ones.”
Rivera added he did not like how the issue was starting to pit taxpayers against the communities most in need.
At-Large Councilor Peter Tallman thanked the councilors for being active and creating dialogue between the city and parents. He added he is looking forward to tackling this issue in the upcoming Public Safety and School Committee discussions.
The council ultimately voted to bring the issue before the School Committee and Public Safety Committee for further discussions in their upcoming meetings.