East Ramapo busing 'debacle': Over 2,000 students without transportation

SPRING VALLEY − Parents and private school staff lined up Tuesday night to tell the East Ramapo school board of the indignities and dangers youngsters have faced during a transportation mess that has plagued the district since classes began.

Among the stories shared by about a dozen attendees, and echoed by the more than 100 in the audience:

• Kindergartners driven around on a hot bus for more than an hour after school, just to be brought back to school instead of home. One parent said her 5-year-old was hot from sitting on a bus with no air conditioning, crying and hungry. An older student said she had an asthma attack because the bus was so stifling hot and the driver wouldn't let them open windows.

• Children left at bus stops in the morning when a driver apparently decides he's been driving around long enough and is out of time, so just heads to a yeshiva campus even though the bus run's not complete.

• Kids stranded after school when no bus comes, staff waiting with them for hours because they can't leave minors alone.

Many said even before school started, planning was clearly a mess, and attempts to get information were thwarted:

• Bus passes never arrived, or were downloaded from the parent portal with question marks for the bus number and pickup/dropoff times.

• Any technology to track the buses doesn't work, many said, so parents have no idea if their bus is coming or how far away it could be. Some parents say they know their kids are being driven through convoluted routes because they've put AirTags in their kids' backpacks.

• Calls to the district's transportation office are hung up on.

District Superintendent Clarence Ellis said the mess stemmed from three bus companies dropping out of contracts at the last minute that they had been awarded in the spring. He and Transportation Coordinator Janette Silva said the district was working on signing emergency contracts for more bus vendors.

One vendor, Silva said, didn't give the district "an inkling they were in trouble" until a week ago.

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But parents said the first two weeks of school have been miserable for them and their children. More than 100 commented either in person or by sending in their complaints.

"You said you had it together," public-school parent Terry Rodriguez said to the board. "Are the buses being vetted properly?"

Bus companies drop contracts

Ellis said companies that had bid and won routes to serve the district's public- and private-school runs "recently realized the work was too much." With the district responsible for busing 42,000 children, it's one of the most complex transportation systems in the state.

The last-minute drop of routes left some 1,500 without transportation in a district that promises universal busing for all kids. Other bus vendors were rejected by the district.

After extensive questioning by board members, officials indicated that at least 2,200 kids didn't have busing.

Meanwhile, Silva said the district was "working tirelessly" this week to find new vendors and get all routes covered.

State-appointed monitor Bruce Singer said that the state Attorney General has been notified about the vendor who dropped contracted services. "Somebody can't commit to a bid and not fulfill it."

"We know we got burnt on it." Singer said. "There are consequences."

The situation a 'debacle'

But parents whose kids attend public and private schools agreed the transportation mess extended well beyond just those dropped routes.

Singer acknowledged that the situation has been a "debacle." He said, "it shouldn't have happened this year, it shouldn't have happened last year."

Ellis added that at the beginning of the school year, "there usually are some hiccups" with transportation. "But not like this."

Parents shouted out questions at Tuesday's meeting. How, they said, could the district contract with a new transportation provider without verifying they had the capacity to fill the routes with buses and drivers?

Officials had said district was ready

Many, including school board members, pointed out that district officials said in late summer that transportation needs were fulfilled and the district was ready for the academic year.

Trustee Ashley Leveille said the board, which had expressed concern about past years' transportation problems, was led to believe things were under control. "Honestly, this is the worst." She later added: "This is not transparent."

Trustee Sherry McGill concurred. "There should be some accountability."

Trustee Harry Grossman expressed frustration that his push to modernize the transportation office had gone unheeded for years.

Ellis acsribed part of the issue to an ongoing national driver shortage.

But David Berman, director of Yeshiva Ohr Rueven in Suffern, said his students who live in the North Rockland, Suffern, and Clarkstown districts aren't having busing issues

"Kids are suffering from real anxiety," Berman said. "There's no excuse for a child to feel unsafe, public or private."

He noted that district officials have enforced a state mandate that private school parents register for busing for the next academic year by April 1. His yeshiva and other schools are pushed by the district to ensure that parents meet that deadline, he said, and the schools do. "Why isn't the district held to the same standard?"

Now what?

Ellis said they the district is seeking emergency contracts with other bus providers.

The district is also offering parents a 63-cents-per-mile reimbursement.

But parents say that they often need a neighbor or grandparent to step in because they are missing too much work. Or they don't have a vehicle and have to hire a taxi. The reimbursement doesn't follow the driver, it's strictly for the parent.

Additionally, traffic has gotten bad in the already congested corridors through eastern Ramapo because of the glut of parents driving kids to school. Parent Tovah Schild said it takes her 20 minutes to navigate the 1.5 miles between her home and Cheder Chabad of Monsey, where her younger attends class.

Her kids' schools are doing what they can to help, Schild said. Bais Chaya Mushka, the high school next to Cheder Chabad, tried releasing older kids early so parents wouldn't have to make constant trips back and forth. "But it was impacting (their) education," she said.

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Rivkie Feiner of Monsey said the number of parents missing work could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages. "People who clock in and clock out are really, really hurting," she told the board.

Another problem: the district is unlikely to get good prices from vendors during an emergency, said Natalie Espinal, interim assistant superintendent for business.

Singer said that one vendor offered to take kids for $47 each, when the usual charge to the district is $7. "We could get all the drivers," he said, "but that would bankrupt the district."

Leveille said that "given what we know, and our history," that the district was wrong to tell people everything was O.K.

"You're right," Simon conceded.

Nancy Cutler covers People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: East Ramapo schools: busing debacle leaves stranded kids, parents say