Getting the kids back on the bus

Lawrence School District will restore transportation service to 35 students who live in Inwood and take part in the federally funded freed and reduced breakfast and lunch program by applying a portion of the $831,000 in grant money the district receives based on its poverty rate, which is 73 percent district wide.
The students, who mostly live on Bayview Avenue, had lost their transportation service after school district officials conducted an internal audit and found that 205 students in the district were not in compliance with the minimum and maximum distances that Lawrence had to adhere by as set down by a public referendum a decade ago.
Originally, the district announced the number as 220, but revised that figure. The amended breakdown is: 150 yeshiva students, 10 Catholic school students, the 35 from Bayview Avenue and 10 in the area of Bayview Avenue.
“From last week to this week we came up with a solution, and it’s a permanent solution,” Superintendent Gary Schall said at a community meeting at St. John’s Baptist Church in Inwood on Aug. 26.
In July, Lawrence officials sent a letter to the parents of the children informing them of the loss of transportation. That letter led to a town-hall style meeting at Lawrence Middle School on Aug. 18. The complaints registered there led to Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages (D-Elmont) who represents Inwood since redistricting took effect, getting involved. He said he spoke to his sister, Assemblywoman Michealle Solages (D-Elmont), about obtaining state funding and she recommended looking into using federal money. “We had to identify the source, then make the request,” Carrié Solages said at the Tuesday meeting. “There are certain monies that can be set aside to be used for public school transportation and we have to take advantage of it.”

The amount of money to be used from the federal grant has yet to be determined, Schall said. ‘[It] will be done in the most cost effective manner by connecting it to other routes.”
New York state requires that kindergarten through eighth-grade students receive transportation if they live at least two miles from their school, and high school students, three miles. The guidelines approved by Lawrence district residents are more generous, allowing for door-to-door transportation for pre-K and kindergarten students and providing buses for first- to fifth-graders who live at least a half-mile from school, sixth- to eighth-graders who live at least one mile away and high school student who live at least 1¼ miles away.
Some parents, such as Inwood resident Veronica Casamassima remain unhappy. Casamassima said she did not receive the July letter and was only informed of the transportation loss the day after the Aug. 18. “What am I going to do, it’s irresponsible,” she said. An office manager who has to be at work in Port Washington, Casamassima said she has yet found a way to get her son, a third-grader, to school. She does not want him crossing the streets.
Sophia Coleman, a Bayview Avenue resident who attended the Aug. 18 meeting said she remains upset that many other students lost transportation to school and will continue to press for a public referendum to change the current distance standards. “I am partially satisfied but still angry,” Coleman said. “We had a boy hit crossing 878 (Nassau Expressway) that is no place for children to be crossing.”
The boy Coleman referred to is 8-year-old Jeffrey Contreras who was severely injured while crossing the Nassau Expressway in June. He is currently in a rehabilitation hospital in Westchester County.

Have an opinion about Lawrence transportation? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.