Transportation Problems Persist

For Town’s Private Schools

By Larissa Lytwyn

Despite improvements in public school transportation, one parent from Housatonic Valley Waldorf School expressed concern over unreliable transportation during the school board’s October 7 meeting.

Saying he was representing the private school’s small but active parent community, Ernie Tartaglia discussed the varying times the morning bus arrived, at times a full hour before school began.

While the school schedule is the same as last year, the quality of bus transportation has been unreliable since school began, said Mr Tartaglia. “Last year, my daughter had a 10 or 15 minute ride,” he said. “Now the bus arrives as early as 7:15 or 7:16 am. We live six minutes from school!”

In the afternoons, he continued, the last child is dropped off an hour after school ends.

He said he has been in contact with other parents about the issue, as well as MLM transportation and Transportation Director Mary Kelly. “For one day, the bus got here at 7:45 am,” he said. “Then we got a call that night saying to expect the bus at around 7:15 am the next morning.”

Melissa Merkling, one of Housatonic Valley’s two administrators, said that about 16 out of the school’s 115 students use the bus. “In the beginning of the school year, everything that could go wrong did,” she said. “Buses would arrive late, or too early, or not at all.” More recently, however, the system has gradually improved. “Mary Kelly has been very nice, and MLM Transportation, too,” she said.

Still, said Mr Tartaglia, the unpredictable schedule has created a lot of emotional pressure in his young daughter. “These are young children we’re talking about,” he noted. “Kindergarteners, first graders. Our mornings have not been going well because of these problems.”

Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff has said the administration’s goal is to keep maximum transportation time at 45 minutes.

“All we’re asking is for timely and age-appropriate transportation,” said Mr Tartaglia. “Right now, it’s neither.”

“There were terrible problems in the beginning of the school year,” said Gail Colby, administrative assistant at Fraser-Woods Montessori School. “But, for the past two weeks things have been better. Buses are arriving earlier.”

Despite the small percentage of bus riders at Fraser-Woods, she said the families that choose the system depend upon it. “They are taxpayers, too,” she said.