Holmdel Mom Petitions BOE For Adult Monitors On All School Buses

HOLMDEL, NJ - Following "several instances" of rowdy and bullying behavior on her son's bus, one Holmdel mom is asking the local board of education to provide chaperone aides on each route to and from school - and she's aiming to gain the support of other parents, too.

Ryan Mancini is currently petitioning the Holmdel Board of Education to employ aides on each school bus in the district after her Kindergarten-age son's bus experienced “several incidents” that eventually warranted an aide to provide extra supervision for the children. But as the aide placement on her son's bus is slated to finish their duty by the end of the school year, Mancini is now asking for all buses to be equipped with a monitor for years to come.

“A lot of people have said that they have similar feelings about the behavior, or possible bullying that’s going on on the busses. A lot of them have echoed my sentiment, which is that there must be an extra adult present on the bus as an oversight,” Mancini told Patch. “I’m sure they’re supposed to be assemblies to teach them what to do about behaving properly and I don’t think that happened this year because of COVID-19.”

Mancini said that, while she had only asked to put aides on buses for Village School children in grades K through 3, the school noted that aides would have to be looked at for all schools.
“The information that I got back from the school was, ‘well, if you’re going to do it for Village, we have to then look at it for everybody,’” Mancini said.

However, not all parents agree with what the Holmdel mom is putting forth. In the comment section of an open letter to the board that Mancini shared to Facebook, some noted that parents should hold their children accountable for their actions without aide intervention. Others pointed to the cost of hiring additional monitors after the district spent over $1 million on pandemic-related expenses over the past year.

While Mancini is unsure what the cost of employing aides for every school bus would be, she tells Patch that she is hopeful the board of education is currently investigating the potential price tag.

The Holmdel Board of Education’s Building, Grounds and Safety Committee has scheduled a private meeting to discuss the need for bus aides on June 24, Mancini wrote in an open letter to parents. Should the board be willing to discuss the issue further, a vote may take place during the public June 30 meeting, Mancini said.

Read her full letter below:

Dear Holmdel Parents:

I am writing today to ask for your support. I would like the Superintendent and the BOE to place an adult bus aide on all Holmdel School Buses for trips to and from school permanently.

My son, who is currently in K at Village, had a bus aide placed on his bus in February for trips to and from school after his bus had several incidents. The school agreed that there was a need for an additional adult to be placed on the bus to monitor the children’s behavior and provide supervision for the children and educate them on how to behave while traveling on the bus. This placement of an aide on my son’s bus is scheduled to end at the end of the school year next week.

If you are in support of the Holmdel Schools adding bus aides permanently and feel that an aide can increase the safety for children while riding the bus, then I encourage all parents to please send an email to lseitz@holmdelschools.org and boardmembers@holmdelschools.org by Wednesday, June 23rd.

I have been in contact with the BOE and Superintendent over the past few months to discuss the need for all busses to have an aide placed on them. The bus driver has the important task of focusing on the road and making sure our kids get to and from school safely. They can not also be responsible for ensuring the children stay in their seats and model appropriate behavior while riding the bus. This is a distraction to our drivers.

The Building, Grounds, and Safety BOE Committee has a private meeting scheduled to discuss the need for bus aides on June 24th. If they feel there is a need for aides, then as I understand it, the issue will be discussed and voted on during the public June 30th BOE Meeting.

If you are in support of the Holmdel Schools adding bus aides permanently and feel that an aide can increase the safety for children while riding the bus, then I encourage all parents to please send an email to lseitz@holmdelschools.org and boardmembers@holmdelschools.org by Wednesday, June 23rd.

Thank you for your help in making the bus safer for our kids!