North Reading Transportation to continue Lynn bus service

LYNN – North Reading Transportation will continue its long partnership with the city for another three years, the school department announced this month.The local bus and transportation company was the low bidder for the school department’s transportation contract, which includes busing for both special education and traditional students as well as food transportation.Terms of the contract were not disclosed.The fiscal year 2010 transportation budget is $611,892. This includes salaries, supplies, software and MBTA bus passes. The city budgeted $511,331 for regular education transportation.Lynn operates eight yellow buses in the morning and 10 in the afternoon, but those vehicles only transport elementary school students who are forced to attend an out-of-district school due to special circumstances, such as English as a second-language learners and special needs kids.The state requires school districts to provide busing to any student in elementary school who lives more than a mile and a half from their school. In Lynn, the district has reduced that distance to a mile, but only students who have special circumstances or have been redistricted due to racial balance are bused, because those are the only students attending out-of-district schools.Students in middle and high school who require transportation to out-of-district schools, required by the state if they live more than two miles away, are given free MBTA Charlie Cards for public transportation.