Why are Kellenberg parents asking Lynbrook for busing?

Of the 55 school districts that see a portion of their students attend the private Kellenberg Memorial High School, 50 of them provide late busing. Lynbrook is one of the five districts that do not — and some parents are getting increasingly desperate for solutions.

“We just want our children to have the same opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities that other children do in the public school,” said Kim Ciprian, whose daughter is a freshman at Kellenberg. “All of our surrounding school districts have figured out a way to make this work financially in a budget.”

The Gannascolis are a one-car family. Diana works until 6p.m., and by the time she is able to get to Kellenberg to pick up her 9th grade daughter Viviana, it’s well past 7 p.m. But Viviana has no other choice but to stay after dismissal — getting extra academic help is key to her success as a student, and she recently joined the Fashion Club as a way to make more friends. But the situation leaves her with no choice but to wait inside the school well into the evening, left alone after all her friends have taken their respective late buses.

“From a social standpoint, we need our kids to be able to learn to be part of a community,” Ciprian said, adding that some of the most important learning takes place outside of the classroom, but it’s made inaccessible through lack of a late bus. “They can't learn to become part of a community, to volunteer, to do sports, to become active. They're being limited.”

“My son’s been restricted for the past three years with sports and clubs and even just socializing with his friends,” said Vanessa Callahan, who has two kids in the private school system.

“We do our best to accommodate our daughter because we want her to maximize her Kellenberg experience,” said parent Chris Wagner. “But there are times where she can't stay after for an afterschool activity or club activity or athletic activity, because we just can't get her. We can’t pick her up.”

This has been a longstanding problem between the Lynbrook school district and parents of kids who go to private schools — but it seems a resolution is no closer. At the March 1 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Paul Lynch said the realistic cost of providing late busing is $850,000, but that this could be mitigated by exploring other policy options.

Some of the policy options suggested by parents include limiting late busing to schools with at least 5 Lynbrook students; creating a “piggyback” system with Hewlett or East Rockaway so the districts could share the cost of busing; choosing a central drop-off location within the district, rather than door-to-door service.

The board was silent when Dr. Lynch and William Belmont, president of the board, each asked for consensus on whether they should further explore the possibility of including late busing in the budget. The meeting moved on.

The district explained in an email to the Herald, “NYS Education law is clear — transportation must be provided to public and nonpublic schools students on an equitable basis. What you do for one, you must do for all.” The district said the issue of limiting late busing in an equitable manner was at the core of the board’s discussion, and if they could not provide equal late busing for each of the 32 private schools that would need that extra transportation, they can’t provide it for any of them.

In the meantime, Kellenberg parents find themselves running out of options. The cost of gas alone has been astronomical, parents said, let alone the cost of Ubers — which, on top of financial concerns, present safety concerns as well.

“Do you know how many times my son got spit at standing on the corner waiting for an Uber because he was dressed in his Chaminade uniform?” said Heather McHale, who added that late busing has been an issue since at least 1982 when she was a child at Sacred Heart. “It’s not safe, and no one seems to care.”

Jonathan Ciprian said that it’s difficult to look at his 14-year-old daughter and tell her she can’t join the Art Club because he can’t find a way to pick her up. Diana Gannascoli said that her daughter, who was badly bullied, had no choice but to switch districts and shouldn’t be kept from extracurriculars because Lynbrook won’t provide late busing.

“I need something done not next year, not five months from now, not by the end of the year, but now,” Gannascoli said. “I can’t wait for them. I need them to do something.”