The Newton Tab reports that at last week’s City Council meeting dedicated to passing the city’s annual $500+ million dollar annual operating budget, the council got hung up for hours over discussion about eliminating school bus fees.
A resolution was considered to cut $500K from the budget, the amount raised by student bus fees, to force the administration to find that money elsewhere and eliminate the fees. There was a proposed non-binding resolution urging the Mayor to find replacement sources of money. After hours of debate, the vote ended in a tie, meaning that the resolution did not pass.
Despite the resolution not passing, it sounds like the Council cares a lot about this issue and may continue to pursue it via other means.
My personal take is that bus fees are a budgetary cheat. Each town has a statutory obligation to provide free public education for all its citizens. A school department may decide that there are financial or programmatic advantages in building a few bigger central schools rather than more neighborhood schools. That’s fine. But if they do so, and the schools are far from the students, they shouldn’t be able to offload the transportation costs onto parents. That additional cost of getting the students to/from those schools should be factored in to the city’s budget just like all the other costs.
Jerry – Respectfully, I have to note here for readers that there wasn’t a resolution to cut $500k from the budget and the TAB article doesn’t say there was. (Councilor Laredo did float a binding motion to cut that amount, but he withdrew it because I pointed out that cutting an expenditure doesn’t make sense when you’re disagreeing with a revenue source. After all, the buses still cost the same amount in a given year regardless of how it’s paid for. I assume that the lateness of the hour and the days spent on the budget was getting people a bit turned around by this point in the discussion.) There was a proposed non-binding resolution urging the Mayor to find replacement sources of money, which failed to pass. However, people shouldn’t read too much into that vote, since again it was quite late in the night and the process.
The School Committee, not the City Council, makes this decision as long as School Transportation remains mostly in the School Department budget (as opposed to being moved out to a different department).
I do agree with your broader conclusions in this post, Jerry, and I think there is some interest in reorganizing the budget in that regard. We also passed a non-binding resolution requesting that the Mayor fund a position of a paid coordinator for Safe Routes to School, which would ensure every child could safely walk or bike to their school, another aspect of transportation equity.
As some additional background for readers: I wrote the first budget resolution on bus fees quoted in the TAB article (as a statement of a sense of the Council broadly, not necessarily a recommendation that we expected adopted in FY22), which said “school bus pass fees should be eliminated or significantly reduced to promote equity, advance our climate action goals, and reduce congestion in Newton.” That did pass earlier in the week. But unless the budget is reorganized on this point, this is still just our unsolicited advice to the School Committee and the Mayor and that’s where our involvement ends on this issue for the moment. (That’s partly why the second resolution didn’t pass.)
The City Council also does not have the power to add money to the budget under our city charter. (We can only make cuts.) And we have no line item authority on the Schools budget anyway, even if we could add funding or change revenues, which we can’t.
Hope this helps clarify.
Totally agree with you. We live 1.6 miles from school but almost a 15 minute walk from the nearest bus stop which is in the opposite direction of school. 1.6 miles is not a realistic daily walk twice a day (and my child has a visual spatial disability so bike riding is not a real option). So I have to pay $350 for this seriously inconvenient service? The way they do school buses certainly doesn’t encourage using the school bus, that’s for sure.
Also to add, living less than 2 miles from school I wouldn’t be so adverse to paying the fee if the walk to the bus stop was only a few blocks.
I hate paying the bus fees. Before our kids were in school, there were no bus fees. Now, I am nearing the end of the NPS career, and I have shelled out $300/student per year for years. I am tired of having to pay for a service. I live too far away for my children to walk to Brown or South. When we purchased the house there were no bus fees.
I pay the fee because as both parents work, we need the bus. I pay for the bus because sending a “driver” to get the kids create more traffic and pollution.
I am tired that parents are being asked to offset the money and that the city could kick in an extra $500K.
BTW, my son’s bus from south was consistently 40 minutes late. He figured out which bus would get him to a neighborhood close to the house, and walk the rest.
The bus fees have got to go. If we encourage more kids to take the bus, there will be less traffic near the schools. Better for the environment.
Mayor Fuller, please send $500K more to the schools, so working folks don’t need to pay for bus.
By the time I am finished with NPS, the amount of bus fees I have paid will be approaching $3,600 for two kids. That is a lot of money to pay for a public school bus. Especially one that is 40 minutes late to south. $3,600 is not a drop in the bucket (at least for my family). That is real money.
Councilor Laredo and others are completely right on this issue, the school administration and Mayor are out to lunch. Not only are these fees and others a budget “cheat”, they’re also regressive. That tend to hit our less affluent families with working parents the hardest. We talk about equity and fairness, but it’s hard for me to see how these are fair?
When the discussion about HS start time was underway I sent a note to the School Committee asking if there was a plan to improve bus service and scheduling to help families where parents work in person and need to be there by a certain time, before the new start times. Ruth Goldman personally replied with a cynical and negative reply.
These are the reasons why Newton needs change, not just in the School Committee but in the Mayor’s office. Opposing a change like this is not a sign of fiscal discipline. To me it shows tone deafness and poor judgement. We should be able to find money to cover these fees. The federal government is sending us lots. What are we saving it for? Sewers?
I was the lead docketer on this item and feel very strongly that this is a regressive tax that is unfair, does not promote equity and does not fulfill our educational obligation to the children of Newton. I as well as several other Councilors have expressed our frustration over the bus fees for the past several years. Councilor Bowman has taken the initiative to docket a discussion item to again have an opportunity to express our concerns and frustration to the school committee. Councilor Humphrey is correct- as long as the transportation/bus fees remain in the school budget the only tool the city council has in the tool box is to reject the budget, which is why I voted against the proposed school committee budget.
The political will on the Council is over whelming to eliminate bus fees- we will continue to work within the jurisdiction outlined in the Charter to get this done.
@Bill Humphrey – Thanks for the clarification and sorry about getting some details wrong in the post. I just updated the post with your correction.
Thank you Councilors Noel and Bowman for your leadership on this issue. For families on a tight budget $300 / student per year is a lot of money . I hope this gets brought up once again.
Thank you, Brenda. You’re 100% right on everything that you said. Thanks for having our backs!
I was happy that the Ward 4 Councilors and others were vocal about the busing fees. It is joke being zoned from Auburndale to Brown and South. Not only is it is a very small population to seek carpools from, the schedule for the late buses from South and Brown is not effective for kids who do theater or sports. Auburndale South (Williams school) took a big hit being zoned to South and Brown years ago and we’ve been paying fees ever since. We were thrilled when during the last year 2 years of high school we had a student who could drive – but the kicker is that the parking lottery is a double whammy – the lottery is not prioritized by distance from the school nor do the parking fees of $350 annually count towards the overall fees SuperCap.
Additionally equity is a big difference – the parking fee at North is $25 whereas the parking fee at South is $350 (full year – regular year). Yes, the North spaces are unassigned city street spots and permits are issued by the police dept whereas the South parking lot has assigned spots but it doesn’t justify such a huge disparity and frankly it is an equity issue – it should be the same fee across high schools no matter who is managing the permits.
As a resident of Auburndale who relies on the school bus, the bus does not have an effective late bus schedule, finally having a student driver in the house meant that we could eliminate that cross town commute from work to south to home. The south late bus, as I have often said, simply doesn’t work for the high school practice (sports or theater) schedule. Rehearsals get out too late as do sports to make a 5:25pm fee so paying for the bus that we can only use one way doesn’t seem fair. I would like to see some justification for this omission to the SuperCap.
The few times over the years that I investigated and inquired to School Committee and NPS transportation, I was passed off to Safe Routes to Schools whose only solution is walking or biking. I was even given instructions on how to find a safe bike route on google maps, like are you kidding – Williams/Auburndale is 6 miles from Brown/South schools! During summer captains’ practice my daughter has taken the T to Newton Center, she took lime bikes as well and walked to South but during the school year with a laptop and backpack and darkness, it is simply is not a Safe Routes to school.
I am happy to speak to any Councilor who wants to understand the real challenge of having a small elementary school like Williams being zoned to the South side – this decision should be revisited! Eliminating exorbitant bus fees would be a nice gesture. Thanks Councilors for trying. NewMo 2.0 seems like it might be a cheaper option!
Newton’s Safe Routes to School is an all-volunteer organization with no local funding, focused on improving walking and biking safety. IMHO the problem is supersized schools with large catchment areas. Why are two middle schools right across the street from each other necessitating the need for more busing? Why was prioritizing equal numbers of students in our high schools more important than student traveling distance?
I hope NewMo 2.0 helps, but I believe it stops running at 6:30 pm and I’m not sure it takes kids.
I agree with Liz on the buses. Having a late bus that doesn’t take into extracurricular schedules makes paying $300 for a one way bus pass a lot less desirable/economic . I remember the first thing I was told at an incoming parent q&a was that if your kids play sports you want to organize a carpool. I wonder how much these late buses are utilized and by who. Maybe middle schoolers? Now I may need my child to take be bus to get to school but it stinks that there isn’t an option home, I live closer to South than Liz and my kids could potentially walk or bike in (though the Parker St overpass for RT9 gives me pause) but now with the later end time getting home safely using those methods is an issue. I used to have my child bike in and pick them up when darkness was an issue but that may work for me this year.
@Lucia I believe the need for balancing North/South has more to do with capacity.
NNHS was just built and its capacity determined then.
Newton North was designed for 1,850students according to this news article when the school opened:
http://archive.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2010/08/31/197m_later_newton_north_to_open/?page=2
Current NN Enrollment 2,051… oops
That doesn’t factor in the large grades which are in middle school and the end of elementary school now. The upcoming 4 school years are projected to have higher numbers than that with 2023-24 shown as the peak of 2146. Though the recent trend towards private school may lighten that. In the past buffer zones were often used to start kids in schools that feed into south side rather than north since kids follow the path they started In elementary school unless they apply out of district to another school .
This is from an email Ruth Goldman sent to me in reply to a particular concern I had written the School Committee about our buses. While I wasn’t asking about late buses and activities, I easily could have.
“Hi Michael:
We do have an excellent school bus situation which many students use and while not perfect, does allow students to get to school on time.”
The parents on V14 are typical and not at all extreme. What concerns me is how our elected officials responsible for the schools could be so totally out of touch and disconnected on so many things? It’s just difficult to comprehend, how serving on a committee like this can cause otherwise wonderful people to stop seeing (and hearing) clearly, to form their own alternative reality. I guess that’s why we have term limits (for SC) and elections.
An “excellent” school bus situation? Lololololol
An excellent bus system? Clearly she wasn’t with my kid on the first day of 8th grade when her bus got lost, didn’t call for help and was at Pine Manor in Brookline! My kid called me from the bus. She was 90 minutes late on the first day.
Regina Moody does the best job she can but without more Money the system will fail.
NPS wants more kids off the the bus for private ways of getting to school. Because as a bus parent since my kids entered kindergarten, it has always been an overloaded system.