KP Board of Ed Acknowledges Inconsistencies in School Busing Policy

The Kings Park Board of Education said at a meeting on Tuesday evening that they are reevaluating the district’s busing policy.

Board trustee Steve Weber acknowledged that there has been inconsistencies in the district’s policy when a parent who was concerned about the distance his children were being picked up from his home addressed the board.

Victor Giancola, a  Fort Salonga father of five who has four children attending schools in the district, said the stop his children had been using to ride the bus had changed this year due to a change in policy regarding buses entering cul-de-sacs.

For the past three years, Giancola said the bus entered the cul-de-sac to pick up his children. According to Giancola, his children now walk about a quarter of a mile to their new stop at the top of the street, which he believes poses a danger to is kids.

"It is a heavily wooded area that can't be seen from my home. My wife is home with a five month-old child," he said.

Giancola said several buses in his immediate area travel into nearby cul-de-sacs and he questions the inconsistency.

“The bus stops that the bus goes down to, these are the very same people that have donated to the school. I really think they are showing favoritism,” said Giancola.

According to Weber, the district plans to consolidate bus stops even further. A recent change in regulations now allows schools to analyze what the daily ridership is on the bus. In the past, schools in the lower grades were required to have a seat for every student.

 “Given the change, we intend to further consolidate the bus stops and people who once had the bus stop closer to their house may not have that anymore,” said Weber.

Another parent raised concerns about his daughter’s safety at her bus stop due to a male student who made disturbing comments to her. Her father contacted the school to request that her stop be changed. The school complied, however his daughter’s new stop was now actually at the home of the boy harassing her. The district moved her stop again, but this time according to the parent, it is several houses down from where she lives and she is not able to be seen from the house.

“The boy now walks over to my daughter’s new bus stop,” he said.

Agruso, who was aware of the matter said she would look into it further.

“We will look into why this issue is being presented to us tonight because the very first day of school this stop was changed,” said superintendent Susan Agruso.

The district has experienced a high turnover of transportation supervisors, having had five different supervisors in the past seven years.

 “I think there has been an inconsistency of policy in the past. We are working this year to address all of those issues. The first thing we did is that we are not going to make any new exception and now we are taking a look at all the old exceptions and seeing if they are still valid and are they consistent with our policy," said Weber.

Weber says the changes are ongoing.

“We are going to make the obvious adjustments now and continue to do that throughout the school year,” he said.