1-Monday’s bids yielded close to 40 routes being picked up. These routes should be on the road by Thursday.
2- There is another bid taking place today and Friday, as well as next Monday.
3- Our router has given me a tentative end date of the middle of next week to finish all the schools bids.
4- After bidding each route twice, the process is that we get together with vendors and see what parts of routes each can do and fill routes that way. This has been done previously for years and yields in routes being picked up.
5- A past vendor has committed to come back into Lakewood. I will only know this Thursday how many pieces of equipment (buses) he can add into the mix. This may be the breakthrough we need iyh!
6- Please note, this process normally takes 3-4 months we are trying to do this in a matter of weeks.
7- The Goal of this bill was to create a means of setting up a healthy long term solution to the issue of busing. We are experiencing growing pains in this new endeavor. This bill is a chance to have a structured means of providing busing for our children. It won’t be fixed in a few weeks it will take time and I believe this will pay off in the future. The parents and schools are the partners in this effort. I look forward to the future where we iyh will say we persevered the early bumps on the road to success, and that we figured out a way to set up this healthy means of busing. The LSTA can only do it with your our parents our schools our partners. Please continue to be patient while we get through this process.
8- As always, for a quicker response from the LSTA please email [email protected]
[TLS]
Thank you R’ Avraham for all of your hard work in getting this going ! You’re doing an unbelievable job so far, keep it up. We all appreciate the constant updates and communication!
What happened to the public school non-mandated routes? Are they also being taken care of?
Thank you reb avrohom for your tireless work on behalf of the tzibbur of lakewood. I admire your dedication.
Kol hakavod! They are here for us the updates and the fact they take the time to answer every email. keep it up and your success is our success.
we greatly appreciate your updates and keeping people in the loop. also thanks for responding to emails. you set an example of how government should work.
Is there anywhere we can see a updated list of which schools actually have buses??
Thank you LSTA for your incredible work- your extraordinary efforts are paying off!
Yes, I still dont think this whole law was legal or fair, I still think that mandated routes should all be taken care of and after try to shtup the courtesy stops in, BUT I do agree that Rabbi Krawiec has been doing an amazing job with what he was dealt with and I appreciate that.
Why do you need a list ? Call tour school ,they will tell you.
The situation is still frustrating, but I am happy knowing that it’s being taken care of. The true test will be next year iy’h to see how the bussing is handled from the start of the school year. Once again I truly appreciate all the effort.
Rabbi K,please make sure that you don’t pay the full price to the vendors that only pick up routes next week. They are missing a half month, which in a 10 month school year is equal to 5% of the yearly wages. Keep that money in the Lsta budget.thanks
to #8
i agree with you. i live 6.5 miles away and have been carpooling since the beginning of last year. i have suggested this many times to first make sure the mandated children are bussed.
Thank you rabbi krawiec for all your hard work. I am just so frustrated because last year my daughter did not have bussing and I got a measly $93 for picking her up every day. She is entitled to mandated bussing and is not getting it. I don’t think that is fair. First mandated bussing should be taken care of them courtesy. I don’t believe anyone when they say iyh you’ll get bussing. They said that last year and we didn’t get bussing. Carpooling is a nightmare.
Under state law ,the vendors can not charge more than 884 for the mandated student. If the vendors feel that it is not worth it for them to transport your child for less than that ,then they will not bid on your route. There is nothing anybody can do about it. You can’t complain to the LSTA or to the BOE for last year. They can’t force vendors to pick up your route.
This is ridiculous and unfair that courtesy busing gets buses before mandated. If it couldn’t be figured out in time for the school year it should have been pushed off till next year.
Dave. If your mandated students is not getting busing ,then it has nothing to do with figuring it out. It means the route is not profitable to the vendor ,plain and simple. Last year also there were routes not picked up. It has nothing to do with courtesy getting before you.
If there are “less profitable” routes competing with the “more profitable” ones then the mandated routes are at a disadvantage competing with the courtesy routes.
Courtesy vs Mandated , doesn’t really matter. Vendors are cherry picking most profitable routes. Their should more required when vendors bid, agree to accept some less profitable routes, to balance it out. Their only in it for the money anyway.
If there will be more routes picked up at the end of this week and next week, then obviously it’s profitable enough. So first only offer the mandated busing routes and then you can offer the courtesy routes.