SAUGUS — The School Committee on Thursday voted to formally request a sixth school bus from NRT in an effort to put the town at the front of the line should a bus become available, and approved guidelines set by the transportation and safety sub committee last week that would provide direction to school officials on how to fill open bus seats.
The town will review how far the student lives from the school, whether or not they receive free or reduced lunch, as well as how close they are to an existing bus route when evaluating how to fill open seats moving forward. So far this school year, Saugus has been unable to meet demand for students seeking to ride buses to school due to a shortage of buses. As of last week, the town had more than 150 students on the waiting list.
Saugus has been able to supply seats to all mandatory riders, defined by the state as students who live more than two miles away from their school and are in grades K – 6.
School Committee Chair Vincent Serino said he believes the steps taken by the committee Thursday night represent a step forward for the district.
“It’s 100 percent a positive step. I mean, what we’re doing is just procedural but what we’re doing is we’re putting the students and their needs first by trying to get a bus,” he said in a brief interview following the meeting. “All these buses are contracted out, but by us procedurally voting to formally ask for another bus it puts us ahead of everyone else, other districts that are looking for a bus so we’re formally asking per our contract for another bus.”
Serino admitted that it was unlikely that NRT, the company contracted to provide transportation services for the town’s schools, would be able to provide the district with another bus in the short term. But, he said, he is hopeful that the town could acquire one via another district.
“The problem is, it’s not just NRT. No one has any buses. Our hope is that now another district maybe the ridership is down and a bus becomes available, that we’re on the list to get that bus,” he said.
During the meeting, Serino emphasized that the procedure put in place for filling bus seats was simply a guideline for the school department to follow, and not formal policy, though he said that is something the committee will consider down the line.
“This is something we’re going to look to put in a policy, but these are guidelines because we do have 150 some-odd students and we have 66 seats, as seats become available, we just want to make sure we’re fair to everyone. Everything’s equitable and we’re not taking one person over another, we have things so it’s equitable for everyone,” Serino told the committee.
In order to do so, he said, a policy subcommittee would convene before presenting the results to the full committee, which would then hold a reading of the policy and garner public feedback before voting to approve it.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
