Lanesborough Blames School Committee for Late Bus Loss
.JPG) The Selectmen say the School Committee chose to eliminate the late buses, not them. |
"It wasn't our decision what was going to be cut. It was up to the School Committee," said Henry "Hank" Sayers, adding the town has been "getting slammed" by the public and school officials.
In a recent School Committee meeting, parents voiced concerns about the elimination of the two buses that ran — one heading to each town — at 4:25 p.m. The buses were in the original school budget, which called for Lanesborough to see a 4 percent increase in assessments.
Lanesborough officials balked at the $102,000 budget increase and asked for school officials to trim it, which they did partly through the elimination of the buses.
Losing the late buses reduced the budget by $30,000 as the committee scaled the budget back to meet the 2.5 percent increase Lanesborough ultimately approved.
"Money was part of it but it was because they were being underutilized," Town Administrator Paul Sieloff said of his recollection of the school committee's justification.
Selectman and School Committee member Robert Ericson said he pushed to keep one late bus that would service both towns.
"It does mean the kids are going to be on the bus for a longer period of time," Ericson said. "It is a compromise. Two buses would be better but if you can't afford two buses, you do one."
Essentially, parents were saying that it was a hardship to leave work early to pick up their children, Ericson said of the recent School Committee hearing.
With the school located in Williamstown, the loss of the late bus is more of a hardship for Lanesborough residents, he said.
The School Committee should have cut a secretary for the building feasibility study project, Ericson suggested, because that position isn't needed this fiscal year. Instead, the committee voted to cut the buses.
Sieloff suggested the School Committee could have found other ways to keep the bus if it wanted to because "they have a $10 million budget. That's a lot of money."
Also relating to schools, the Selectmen are expected to appoint a committee to look at other affiliation options. The town is currently in an agreement with Williamstown under Supervisory Union 71 as well as the regional high and middle school. Elementary School Committee member Robert Barton has been pushing for exploration of alternatives.
The Selectmen are waiting a little longer to appoint the committee because applications were coming in slowly. Currently there are seven applicants but most of those came in Thursday and the Selectmen hadn't had time to look through their credentials.
In other business, Sieloff said Putnam Road is now open after a reconstruction of the culvert and there is only a "punch list" of items left. A project to repair the Town Hall roof is also in the final stages and should be completed next week.
From there the town will be moving onto other projects including getting the engineering for the water line extension to the landfill. Sieloff said the town will likely do the work in-house so as to fit the budget. He hopes to have an engineering firm on board in the next month.
"We could really get a lot of work done by spring," he said.
The Selectmen are also looking to revamp their rental policies for the use of Town Hall.
"I wanted to get a general facility use policy and get some feedback from the board," Sieloff said, adding that the policy could be expanded to other town properties in the future.
Tags: MGRHS, school budget, school bus, SU71,
