Lakewood officials yesterday met as plans to create a school bus and student safety task force get underway.
The meeting, held at the BOE building, included members of the Board of Education, members from the Lakewood Police Department and Township Official.
During the meeting, ideas were thrown around as to how to increase safety pertaining to picking up and dropping off children, noting the recent incidents that occurred with vehicles failing to stop for the flashing red lights.
A task force involving those and other officials, as well as school administrators, is expected to be formed in the coming weeks.
Also discussed at the meeting, was ideas on how to better the communication between BOE officials, schools and parents, when and how to implement a 90 minute delayed opening during storms.
Officials noted, that during Wednesday morning’s carpool run, which ran on a 90 minute delay schedule, many children and parents were left waiting in the frigid cold due to the flip-flop decision of the BOE. On Tuesday evening, the BOE announced that the buses, and public school openings were running on a normal schedule, but that was changed early Wednesday morning due to what they said were icy road conditions.
Despite the delay, many non-public schools opened on time. As a result, traffic around town was extremely heavy as parents were forced to carpool.
[TLS]
Lakewood schools are always last to determine delayed opening because of private schools. Stay safe and delay,if you don’t alot of law suits and the poor driver will have cope the rest of life. Safety for our children first.
Did not see any bus drivers or bus dispatchers at the meeting. Looks like the only people that could have had correct input about bus routes at that meeting were the police.
Nothing to discuss. The guy who made the decision must be fired. Period. There. I just saved everyone a lot of wasted time from this meeting.
I am happy to see that action was taken. Although a 90 minute delay is a good thing. They should find a way how to satisfy everyone.
I think the 90 minute delay was needed. It was icy out there. Surrounding schools also had delays but were announced earlier. Lakewood seems to wait till last minute for delays & closings. My children’s safety is #1 & a delay was the right choice!!
What is the problem with Lakewood is that they seem to let the private schools make the decisions. Every other district seems to see that the students and staff get either early dismissal or 90 minute delay when there is a snowstorm. Years ago this was not a problem,had a plan that worked. Everyone knew what to expect and how to implement it. Another thing is when it says 90 minute that should mean parents wait for bus to take children to school. All schools start their day of classes 90 minutes later.
No more 90 minute delays. If you can’t open on time, stay closed. Lakewood is awful with the delays. From the BOE dragging it’s feet, to the parents that panic that they will be late and drive the kids in themselves causeing major traffic delays making them late, along with the busses being late. Private schools that tell the parents no delay and to drive the kids in and not telling the bus companies making the bus drivers run the run anyway while picking up no one is a waste of time, gas, and again, backs up traffic. So that 90 minute delay turns into a over 2 hour delay, so what’s the point? Just close down, and wait for a safer day to go in
# 6, is correct. Lakewood waits till the last minute, afraid to make anyone unhappy. Private schools should just open 90 minutes late, parents shouldn’t drive students in earlier. End of problem!
Now they see now they see what would happen if they took away the busing traffic in Lakewood would look like that every single day
still don’t know how private schools and public schools share the same buses. It’s a private school, I’m pretty sure the parents should be paying for their kids buses not using public schools money for it. Anyway, 90 minute delays are absolutely needed. Lakewood police need to arrest anyone who doesn’t stop for the buses. Bus drivers need to report their license plates to make sure that these things don’t continue.
anon…u do know that people who send to private school do pay taxes and should prob receive bussing before the illegal kids who are flooding our public school system!!!!and whos parents dont pay any taxes for the township or police or garbage or schooling or bussing. ….just because we choose private schools we still pay a LOT of taxes to receive survices…one question I have is how do the icy conditions change in 90 minutes? What does a delay help ?
the illegals do pay taxes in form of rent, and part of that rent goes to paying taxes that the owner pays. 90 minute delays could change conditions around the school as it allows enough time for the maintenance workers to ice the sidewalks amongst other things.