St Rose Parents, Msgr Weiss Respond

To Proposed Busing Option

By John Voket

St Rose of Lima’s Monsignor Robert Weiss believes the parish that helped influence a state law requiring towns in Connecticut to provide bus transportation to parochial schools deserved to be consulted when Newtown’s schools superintendent proposed a fundamental change to the current busing system.

That proposal, which would see St Rose School students from kindergarten on up joined by Reed Intermediate students on combined school bus runs, was the main focus of an informational meeting at the parish hall Thursday evening, April 26.

All-Star Transportation representative Richard Dufour came to the school to primarily respond to questions, and to reassure St Rose parents that stepped-up training and zero tolerance for bullying, combined with high resolution cameras and microphones on all his buses, would all but eliminate any threat of bullying, bad behavior or conflicts that might occur on mixed bus runs.

Board of Education Vice Chair Laura Roche and school board member John Vouros along with Reed School Principal Sharon Epple were also on hand to hear the concerns of about 30 parents and Msgr Weiss during the hourlong session. Superintendent Janet Robinson was attending a conference at Harvard University in Massachusetts, and could not attend according to Dr Epple.

After apologizing to the St Rose contingent for the superintendent’s absence, Ms Roche reminded the group that Dr Robinson would be back by Tuesday, May 1, for the next pubic school board meeting. And she suggested to St Rose parents that they would be welcome to attend to express their concerns directly at that meeting.

After a brief explanation about the newest generation of surveillance equipment, which Mr Dufour said can see and capture high definition audio from every corner of the bus, he and Dr Epple sought to minimize any concerns or fears the private school parents were expressing.

After hearing fears about the youngest riders being exposed to language and behavior that might be acceptable for preteens and teenagers, Mr Dufour said that the youngest students would be seated at the front of the buses. Older groups would be seated graduating toward the rear of the vehicles, with the oldest students being allowed to sit in the far rear seats, St Rose Principal Mary Maloney assured.

“This is not being taken lightly,” Ms Maloney said. “The younger students will go to the front of the buses.”

Mr Dufour told parents that the plan to merge the bus runs came from a charge by Dr Robinson to “look at the entire [routing] plan and come up with cuts.”

He said the current system, which provides 11 exclusive bus runs for St Rose and a four-tier system, was not efficient. Combining the runs would provide the greatest efficiency, he said, and joined with helping the district eliminate four additional bus runs could result in savings that Mr Dufour estimated would be about $225,000.

‘Inappropriate’ Budget Remark

The All-Star official then mentioned that a $1 million budget reduction taken by the Legislative Council after a first-round budget request failed at referendum earlier in the week might have some unforeseen affect on the busing situation, a contention that Ms Roche said later was inappropriate.

“We don’t have any idea where that reduction can come from until we meet and discuss it as a board,” she said following the meeting.

Many of the parent concerns were duplicated on cards that were reviewed and passed on to Mr Dufour and Dr Epple by St Rose Home School Association President Robert Griffin.

Regarding behavior issues, Dr Epple said neither she nor Ms Maloney had received or discussed a draft proposal for discipline protocol, but assured the parents that any incident would prompt immediate consultation and cooperation between the two school leaders.

Dr Epple said to date, she has only been forced to assign seats to four students since last September because of disciplinary issues, and that she has only asked to review bus video records twice in the past two years. She said that at the age of intermediate students, they still tend to be forthcoming when confronted by a school official about accusations of inappropriate behavior.

“Riding the bus is a privilege, not a right,” Dr Epple said, adding that state safe school climate legislation will inspire even greater awareness of bullying and mean behavior. “The bus is an extension of school, and parents should know we take that seriously. We have the right to revoke bus privileges.”

She also said that by law, school bus operators and staff are counted among first line reporters if any behavior situation is encountered.

Qualifying Behavior

One parent who did not provide her name asked how school officials would qualify a behavior issue, and asked if the protection would be extended to students who are sometimes singled out because they are wearing school uniforms.

“If anything is reported, we have the technology to rely on, and policies to identify and respond to inappropriate comments,” Ms Maloney said. “If there is an issue, let us know.”

Dr Epple added that any guilty party is constantly surrounded by peers and other children, and because of the sheer number of witnesses to any incident, “most times” the individual involved is identified and admits to any wrongdoing after the fact.

Ms Maloney said that at St Rose, all parents will have to sign off once new policies related to the busing situation are established.

When questioned near the end of the evening on why St Rose parents and leaders were not offered a say in the planned changes, Mr Dufour said his charge by Dr Robinson was simply to formulate a plan.

“It will work out fine,” Mr Dufour concluded. “There will be a few bumps and we’ll fix them.”

This prompted Msgr Weiss, who was sitting through the last half of the meeting, to state his displeasure at not being consulted before the charge was made to pare down the routes.

“It’s a matter of fairness. These decisions were made without respect for us here,” Msgr Weiss said. “The public schools always find the money to make up for cuts. It’s not fair that Dr Robinson did not come to talk to us.”

He also reminded attendees that St Rose parishioners were instrumental in getting legislation passed that provided school bus transportation to parochial schools in the state. That law, passed in 1957, paved the way for St Rose to be one of the first two parochial schools to be included with public school bus programs.