Schools

Bus Doesn't Show for Edison Students, BOE Promises Bus for Afternoon Ride Home

Bus for intermediate school students in Washington neighborhood does not show.

The first day of school went off with a hitch for some Edison Intermediate School students when the bus did not pick them up Thursday morning.

Edison students who live in the Washington neighborhood had to have their parents drive them to school this morning after the promised bus from Dapper Bus Company did not arrive. The bus was promised to the neighborhood after part of the Washington neighborhood was redistricted to Edison for intermediate school, a plan that is in its second year.

Board of Education officials have been working on the issue and assure that bus service will be in place for the afternoon ride home and for tomorrow's second day of school. BOE spokeswoman Lorre Korecky said that school transportation officials talked to the bus company on Wednesday to confirm the route for the Washington students for today. Korecky said based on Wednesday's discussions the school district thought bus service would arrive this morning and did not anticipate a problem.

"We're very sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused," Korecky said. "We want to assure parents that they bus will be at Edison this afternoon and will be running tomorrow."

A woman answering the phone at Dapper's Iselin headquarters said she did not know of any issue regarding Westfield and hung up the phone when questioned.

Patch has learned that BOE Business Administrator Bob Berman will be meeting with bus company officials later today to discuss what happened and how to prevent it from occurring in the future.

The bus issue occurs in an area of town that has been at odds with the BOE since the spring 2009 decision to redistrict Washington School students for middle school. Parents in the neighborhood have complained the BOE has ignored the issues impacting the district and were breaking up students by sending some to middle school on the south side of town and having them ride a bus to middle school.

The last issue involving a school bus in town occurred in June when a four-year-old student at Lincoln School was accidentally left on a bus after the bus dropped other students off at school. The student was recovered at the bus yard an hour later and was not harmed. The Lincoln School incident involved Vogel Bus Company in Roselle.


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