Many parents over the past few days have been waiting outside wondering where their child’s bus is, and they were just left waiting, parents tell TLS.
We emailed the Board Superintendent and are waiting on a response.
However, officials tell TLS the route issues are partially a result of the busing crisis which was only resolved a couple of weeks ago. The delay caused the bidding process on routes to be delayed, leaving some routes unclaimed, or “not picked up.”
But another major factor, officials say, was that the bus company STA no longer services Lakewood.
The official says that the STA bus company stopped servicing Lakewood this year “after the State came in, leaving them with a difficult working environment,” prompting them to leave.
STA serviced approximately 25% of the buses, which is approximately 150 buses.
The routes left behind from STA are being absorbed by the other bus companies, which – on top of the standard school-start bus route scheduling – could take some time until routes are in order, says a Board member.
[TLS]
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you can’t call the Board as they never pick up and there voice mails are full.
Everyone has has to be patient. We are lucky to have transportation at all. Speak to some of your friends who live out of town and they will tell you how many car pools they have to do a week. Everything will be resolved soon but you have to be patient. I give a lot of credit to the bus companies who are working around the clock to help the entire community.
To administrator:let’s not forget that they are also helping themselves as they also need jobs
I thought you only published news. If there would have been no problems, then I would understand publishing the story.
If they had CUT courtesy busing, and those parents would have made car pool arrangements (or paid privately) and Im sure if you dont have busing EVERY day, you take the time to figure out who can drive when in advance, unlike if its just one day, then there would have been enough buses for the rest of us!
Now, 80% of kids in schools lucky enough to HAVE busing are not getting to school on time. School starts at a ridiculously late time of 9:15 which can translate to classes starting at 9:40! When are they learning exactly???? Because of a few, and I’m sorry to say this, self righteous, selfish, and self centered parents, pretty much all kids are suffering!
Lucky we have busses? I live over 3 miles away from school. They are required to provide busses. I woudl bet if this happened to the Public School students the State Monitor would start screaming.
Why don’t they notify us that our route wasn’t picked up yet by a bus company so we can drive our kids on time and not waste our time waiting for hours outside in the heat?
We received a bus card with a bus company name and scheduled times. Where did that information come from if we have no route yet??
I’m ok with driving for a few days but I just wish there was communication to the parents.
Another factor is that those at the BOE getting payed big money to write the routs are doing an awful job!!
Ask any school admin and they’ll tell you have the routs don’t make any sense, buses needing to go up one way streets backwards, having kids cross the non cross able street, buses of the se schools keep crisscrossing each other…. The list goes on. Some one who never drove or managed a bus company shield not be the one making routs
In short; thank you again, Mr. Michael Azzara.
Thank you for publishing this information. I was wondering how it could be that my son’s bus route never got picked up. At least now I know that I need to pick him up from school — the 1st day the boys waited over an hour for a bus that never showed b/c there was no bus for that route….As to the crummy route-writing–we have had some wonderful bus drivers who have tweaked the routes to make it work better. Hats off to all the wonderful bus drivers who do their best to make our days work better!!! we appreciate you so much!!!
To “Oh please”,
Wow, you surely have your facts screwed up! The numbers were pretty clear about how many children were going to be affected by the cutting of courtesy bussing and it was FAR FAR from the “few” that you talk about. For the sake of clarity; my children were not going to be affected so I’m sort of neutral.
As for calling those “few” parents “selfish, self centered” and all the other nice things you labeled them with- may I suggest yout ate EXACTLY that person, not they. Please re-read your comment and think who is the selfish, self-centered one here. Do you realize the huge cost that would have been added to parents who already struggle paying their bills?! I’m not sure what world you live in but it costs a heck of alot of money to send 5-7 children to school. And you are lamenting the fact that YOU are inconvenienced for a few days and you have the nerve to call them all sorts of names?!
I just want to say a huge thank you to all those bus drivers who are driving calmly n safely ! Even under these hard high pressure times! And thru getting yelled at from they’re boss for not showing up on too me or from those parents who blurt out those NASTY COMMENTS! To u parents it doesn’t help thus get to quicker by you being nasty! All it does is put a bad taste in the drivers mouth on ur child n you!
Let us all have respect to the right ones n remember that the drivers are humans too n no matter how late they come! It’s not because they started they’re route late. It’s cuz of traffic or whatever mishap happened! Please be polite n dan lkaf zchus!!! A gut ge benched n safe year to all!!
Who exactly makes the routes? Some of them (all?)don’t make any sense!
As in kids on one side of the street being picked up by one bus and kids on the other side being picked up by another bus!(just one small example!)
“after the State came in, leaving them with a difficult working environment” What does that mean? They where no longer able to over charge us for the routes?
Thay have bus drivers driving all over town just to pick up the. Children this is how the boe made these routes up this year and don’t give time for traffic.bus drivers are doing there best.that do a great job please don’t get mad at them
My child attends calvary academy school started today 8a no one bothered to let our school know there would be no busing till 430 yesterday afternoon. That is totally unprofessional if the board of ed knew that this bus company pretty much quit they should’ve given parents ample time to make arrangements. Just another example of the boards inadequacy.
My kids got a bus card. They got picked up. But there was no bus for them going home. BOE said the routes were never approved. So meanwhile, my kids now start 15 min later, end earlier AND I still have to pick them up
I agree with Pat. As A Bus Driver, we do need extra time for all of the traffic on the roads. And we are allowed to pick up / drop-off children on the same side of themselves as our doors open for safety sake.
Please be patient.
It wasn’t until late yesterday afternoon and a circle of phone calls to my son’s school, Jays Bussing, Monmouth/Ocean Comission, and Lakewood Twp. Each detouring me to the other only to find out that Lakewood decided NOT to provide bussing for my son. We were lead to believe that we were approved weeks ago for bussing. The fact that I was running in circles and did not even receive a call to clarify the change and the explanation as to why 21 children (a full bus) were not going to have bussing leaves me annoyed and completely inconvenienced as school does not start until 9:15! I am now paying out of my pocket for additional extended care so my husband and I can get to work! It will be all too soon that Lakewood school district is taken over by the state like Paterson was years ago! The districts financial situation is a complete disgrace!!!! The BOE is an absolute embarrassment and they are failing our children!!
I don’t understand this “routes not profitable” thing is. There are children who the town is required to bus (not courtesy) who do not have busing.
If the route isn’t profitable then pay more for the route.
They didn’t pick up my girls so far and no one picks up the phone when we complain. At least they are consistent!!
My child goes to Donovan Catholic which is over 7 miles away and we were sent a bus pass however we found out at 5pm the night before school started that we had no bus. With over 65 students going to that location from Lakewood this is absolutely ridiculous.No one at the BOE picks up the phone and when I went there I was approached by nasty people who told me it’s not there problem. Well it is. We pay enough taxes that busing should be provided. The state needs to be contacted to take this over.
some of my friends dont even wait outside in the mornings with their little kids or in the afternoon upon return, if we are going to talk about little kids and transportation, maybe we should address that issue as well.
it is not okay to leave your little kids outside waiting for the bus, even though this is Lakewood. Many mornings on my way to work i want to get out of my car and ring peoples bell to ask why the small children are alone.
besides for safety, it does wonders for the kids actual day at school.
I am a bus driver. Thank you to the Parents that appreciate Us. This week has been a Really bad week and we are doing our Best. Hopefully it will be better next week. Yes some of the routes do not make sense. I am driving in circles all day