School Board Hears Bus Complaint

By Eliza Hallabeck

After months of email exchanges with the school district, one Newtown mother was told by members of the Board of Education on Wednesday, January 20, during a transportation hearing, no school buses in Newtown are permitted to drive down cul-de-sacs.

The hearing took place in Reed Intermediate School’s library, and school board Chair Lillian Bittman and members Richard Gaines and William Hart sat facing two tables. On their right sat Susan Mcguinness of Little Brook Lane. On the board’s left sat Transportation Director Tony DiLonardo, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, and Kathy Hydeck, who works in the Transportation Department.

Little Brook Lane intersects with Button Shop Road, off of Route 25. Hemlock Road is approximately half a mile from that intersection, and Little Brook Lane continues to its own cul-de-sac.

Ms Mcguinness said that at the start of the school year she was concerned because kindergarteners in the district are picked up at their houses, but not her child. She said the bus stop for her children, her kindergartener who attends St Rose of Lima School and her third grader attending Middle Gate Elementary School, was a half-mile from their house, at the intersection of Little Brook Lane and Button Shop Road.

The driver for her kindergartener’s bus run started driving down Little Brook Lane, a cul-de-sac, to pick up the student after talking to Ms Mcguinness. Mr DiLonardo later authorized the bus route for Middle Gate School to turn around in the cul-de-sac, but the bus stop was not moved from Hemlock Road’s entrance.

At the school board hearing, Ms Mcguinness said she and a number of her neighbors want a combined stop to be added in her driveway, at 31 Little Brook Lane, for the Middle Gate run, the Reed Intermediate School run, and the Newtown Middle School and Newtown High School run.

Ms Mcguinness said the NMS and NHS run picks and drops off students living on Hemlock Road and Little Brook Lane at the intersection of Little Brook Lane and Button Shop Road.

Another reason Ms Mcguinness gave for having the stop at her house, was a doctor’s note saying driving her less-than-1-year-old son from the house to pick up her other two children from their bus stop could aggravate her son’s immune disease.

Mr DiLonardo said when a bus route computer program, called Versatrans, was installed in the district in 2004, “They wanted the children to come out to the corners to save time and fuel.”

Among other things, Ms Mcguinness brought a police report from Newtown Police Officer Steve Ketchum, which she read as saying the cul-de-sac on Little Brook Lane was the safest place to turn around, and multiple emails written by her neighbors in the area, which she read to the board.

“To proceed down this narrow section of road,” Mr DiLonardo said, “to me is a safety hazard.”

After saying driving down Little Brooke Road and Hemlock are not safe, Dr Robinson said the preferred route for the buses would be to turn down Hemlock Road and back out into Little Brook Lane to turn around, not to continue farther down Little Brook Lane to use its cul-de-sac.

Earlier in the day, Mr DiLonardo said he drove down the road in a moderately sized vehicle, and that vehicle took up the whole of Little Brook Lane.

When asked where the safest place for the stop would be, Mr DiLonardo said the intersection of Little Brook Lane and Button Shop Road, where it is a four-way intersection, is the safest place for children.

While Mr DiLonardo said no school buses in the district drive down cul-de-sacs, he later said, if any do, the driver is doing so against the protocol of the school district or it is being done for a child with special needs.

“Four people from the office have gone out there,” said Dr Robinson. “This decision was not capricious.”

Before voting on a motion, Ms Bittman, Mr Gaines, and Mr Hart spoke on the topic.

“I’ve lived here for 15 years,” said Ms Bittman, “and I have always heard that buses do not go down cul-de-sacs. Sitting on one year of the Transportation Committee, I will say that cul-de-sacs are a huge concern for our drivers from the safety training they receive. I know your driver did it, but what I personally heard on the Transportation Committee is that they are terrified to do it.”

Mr Gaines said he appreciated the situation Ms Mcguinness had with children walking down the road from the bus stop, but he also understands the difficulty of having a bus turn around in a cul-de-sac.

“I think it is very important that we treat everybody in town fairly,” Mr Hart said. “I know from my own experience in my neighborhood, we have several cul-de-sacs of almost exactly this length. In all of those cases the stop would have been at the stop at Little Brook Lane and Button Shop. To go down the cul-de-sac, I think, would open Pandora’s box.”

Ms Bittman agreed with Mr Hart on treating everyone in town fairly. There are families in town who have children walking farther than a half-mile to their bus stops, according to Ms Bittman.

“I wish we could have solved this before she felt compelled to come to us,” said Ms Bittman to Mr DiLonardo.

Mr Gaines moved, and Mr Hart seconded, the motion to decline Ms Mcguinness’s request to add a bus stop on Little Brook Lane passed Hemlock Road.

Ms Mcguinness has 20 days since the January 20 hearing to file an appeal to the State Board of Education.

“It is just silly,” said Ms Mcguinness, “because I am arguing with their policies. And I am not getting anywhere.”

A week after the hearing, Ms Mcguinness said she felt the hearing was a fixed race. Adding she understood transportation costs and making decisions for the community, but said she needs to fight for her opinion.