Why Not Take The Bus?

To the Editor:

Cheryl Arend [Letter Hive, “The Middle School Traffic Snarl,” 4/29/11] complains loud and long about the inability to exit the middle school on Queen Street when dropping off one of her children. Apparently the traffic snarls make her high schooler tardy if she can’t exit the way she wants to. She goes on to complain that the traffic person leaves Queen Street at a specific time and goes to Church Hill Road to direct traffic at St Rose of Lima School, and it is her belief that this causes her taxes to be spent improperly.

Why is she, and so many others, dropping off her children at either school? St Rose of Lima pays for the use of traffic control for the school. It does not come from taxpayers. However, we pay dearly for bus service for every child who attends public school in Newtown, and yet the buses are rarely more than half full, and parents like Ms Arend are clogging up the driveways of the schools, and then complaining about the traffic.

The world isn’t perfect, even in Newtown, and it isn’t improved by people who won’t slow down, who must have it “their” way, and complain when there is a solution, just one not to their liking. If Ms Arend’s children would use the town-paid bus service I’m sure that neither would arrive at school tardy, and Ms Arend would enjoy a much more pleasant day.

Betty Guarino

167 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook                       May 3, 2011