Local Parents Concerned with School Bus Issues

Nothing gets parents more irate than the safety of their children.

This was apparent at the East Meadow School District’s Board of Education communication meeting on Apr. 28, where several parents took to the podium to voice their dismay with a rezoning of bus eligibility in their neighborhood for students.

The area in question for this specific issue is composed of several streets off of North Jerusalem Road, including Maple Lane, Shari Lane and Durham Road, among others. This is located in the western part of East Meadow near the Meadowbrook Parkway.

Superintendent Louis DeAngelo explained that this region had to be rezoned due to new access points being added at the middle school. Some students who had been eligible in the past were no longer eligible after this rezone, he said.  It also required attention from the school because they had problems with an overcrowding situation on the bus that serves that area.

“Some of the children on the bus never had passes, others were mis-measured in error, others had other circumstances going on,” DeAngelo continued.

“Busing in our neighborhood was cut in the middle of the school year,” said Debra Wrynn, who was accompanied by her husband Carl. They live on Maple Lane and have one child in seventh grade and one who will be entering sixth grade next year. “We had the principal deliver a letter saying that children who take the bus that don’t have a bus pass are insubordinate.”

Renatta Barzana, a resident on Shari Lane who has a child in seventh grade, explained that she received a letter saying her child, who received a bus pass in the beginning of the year, would not receive bus service any longer on Feb. 16. They had to stop using the bus services by March 18, she said.

Debra Wrynn said that the district had measured for the children to cross Merrick Avenue at Luddington Road, where there is no light, no crosswalk and cars often drive at high speeds. Her husband Carl expressed his concern because he said there have been two fatalities on that section of Merrick Avenue within the past two years.

“The route they measured, which is under a mile, involved them crossing Merrick Avenue without any light or anything,” Mrs. Wrynn said. “They said that they could take the over a mile route, which involves crossing at traffic lights, but those traffic lights don’t have a crossing guard. We have an eleven year old child who is small and would be trying to cross without anyone there to help them.”

Vishnu Laljie, who moved from Florida in 2009 to his home on Shari Lane, said he bought that house because the bus stopped right in front of it. He has twins in sixth grade at the middle school and an older daughter who just entered high school.

“My older daughter went to the middle school and got transportation,” Laljie said. “The bus stops in front of my house, and that is where it has been for 37 years. It passes the house now.”

DeAngelo said that he understood the parents' concerns, but he reiterated that the locale in question was a “border area” to begin with. He continued by saying that the district is bound by its guidelines and “we need to go by how our policy indicates we handle it, which is the shortest route.”  The district has to go by the actual mileage allocation that has been prescribed by board authorities after a vote by the community, he said.

“I can tell you the board is concerned about the situation – we have always had a concern about Merrick Avenue, but we also have other roads in the community,” DeAngelo stated. “We have children who have to cross Hempstead Turnpike, Bellmore Road and Stewart Avenue. Each of them is busy at different times in the day."

According to DeAngelo, the board has issued a directive to secure crossing guards from Nassau County. Since the district isn’t responsible for procuring crossing guards themselves, they need to confer with the county. He also said that they have been in contact with local legislators to do everything they can to put that into place. 

The parents are hoping that the Board of Education will take a closer look at the route and the overall safety situation of the children.

“Look at the route and see that you are putting peoples lives in jeopardy,” Carl Wrynn said. “Children’s safety is first priority."