District 13 parent pushes for added busing

The topic of safe transportation in District 13 has resurfaced after a parent created a petition to make eligibility for buses more inclusive, but did not submit it to the Board of Education before the March 15 deadline.

Gabrina Basile, a working mom who lives in Franklin Square, said that her oldest child enters the fourth grade next year and will no longer be able to ride the bus to the Willow Road School, though her two youngest children still can. Transportation is provided for all children from kindergarten through third grade in District 13 who live a half-mile or more from the school they attend. Children in grades 4 through 6 are only permitted to ride the bus if they live one mile or more from their school.

Basile’s initial inquiry was to try to get the administration to allow siblings to ride the bus together, irrespective of grade level, since the bus is coming near her home anyway. She drafted a petition that included signatures from 70 residents and attempted to submit it early last week, after the March 15 deadline. District policy also requires 100 signatures for a petition to be considered.

The petition would have allowed a proposition for the contested transportation policy onto the ballot in May, in which case the district would likely need to pierce the tax levy cap in order to preserve all of its programs and fund the added transportation.

“I just don’t know what to do,” Basile said. “My purpose was to offer safe transportation extended for our fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders to keep the children on the buses.” She said she’s uncomfortable letting her children cross Franklin Avenue unsupervised because of its high traffic.

Superintendent Constance Evelyn said that a similar petition to Basile’s made it onto the ballot about five years ago but did not pass.

“At that time, it appeared that voters recognized that the additional resources needed to support more transportation would have provoked the elimination of other educational services currently provided by the district,” Evelyn said. “The last transportation petition that was placed on the ballot specifically failed because the impact to the budget was estimated at $775,000.” She said funding the extra transportation would force the district to make decisions about staffing and class size that would have negatively affected the quality of education.

“We partner with the police department to identify the critical placement of municipal crossing guards,” she said. “There is also a concerted effort, particularly in the early grades, to integrate lessons about community and safety in the social studies curriculum.”