Board of Ed Agrees To Meet With Busing Consultant

The Kings Park Board of Education, at a meeting Tuesday evening, agreed to meet with a busing consultant to review a past analysis of the system as well as look at current numbers on the district’s transportation system today.

Superintendent Susan Agruso told the board that Transportation Advisory Services, the firm that did the can provide current stats on the system as well as a comparison to other district's busing systems. Agruso said the updated analysis would cost the district $5,700.

“The scope will be to update with present numbers, latest contracts from other districts, what systems would look like if we ran our own buses,” said Agruso. “We will be comparing apples to apples… with very specific information to the district.”

The district is already looking at a shortfall of just over $1 million for the next year's budget, according to Agruso.

The possibility of a switch has prompted who say the move would not save the district money and would not be in the best interest of the students.

The district has tried other cost savings measures. That measure failed when the union, who said that there were problems with the switch, did not agree to make the change.

This is a corrected version of an earlier story which said the district had hired a consultant. Patch regrets the error.