West Orange Schools Reverse Course On 'Courtesy Busing' Cuts

WEST ORANGE, NJ — It’s been an eventful month for kids who ride the school bus in the West Orange Public School District.

On Thursday, Superintendent Scott Cascone provided another update in an ongoing saga that involves proposed budget cuts to “courtesy busing” which could have affected hundreds of students. Read More: West Orange School Official Reacts To Concerns Over Busing Cuts

In short – there’s good news, Cascone reported. He wrote:

“I am writing to follow up and to advise regarding the resolution which has been brought to the matter of the removal of courtesy/hazardous busing from the 2021- 2022 school year budget.

“I would like to thank all the district’s constituents who have provided thoughtful and constructive feedback and information to help inform the district's reevaluation of this decision.

“I’m pleased to report that the district will be able to restore all courtesy/hazardous routes for next school year. I would like to provide some details from where the funds were obtained. This is somewhat complex, and therefore will require some degree of detail to help our stakeholders understand.

“The district will be utilizing $500,000 from fund balance which is surplus or unspent revenue/expenditures from the existing fiscal year. Under code, the district is allowed to maintain a fund balance up to 2% of the expenditures.

“Best and prudent financial practice is to move this surplus into reserve accounts, including capital, maintenance, and emergency reserve (within the allowable limits) for any unforeseen expenditures that may occur in the following year that were not budgeted. As reported during previous budget presentations, historically, the West Orange Public School district has not been able to maintain these reserve accounts.

“Moving into next year, the district administration and board were beginning to rectify this systemic liability by gradually, over the next several years, transferring money from surplus into reserves and reducing the amount of fund balance utilized as outlined in the 21-22 Budget Goals posted October 2020.

“The utilization of this $500,000 previously earmarked to move into reserves and our fund balance will now be utilized to fund busing. In plain terms, it delays the district's plan to improve its fiscal solvency for another year.

“Notwithstanding this outlined and prudent strategy, the question may remain, as to why the decision was made to cut courtesy busing as opposed to something else?

“The answer to this question is a bit more nuanced. First and as previously explained, the administration and board were operating with the best of intentions to maintain the full programmatic landscape of the district. Certainly, moving into next year, receiving students in need of academic reinforcement and acceleration, as well as social-emotional support, and the benefits of the holistic services which the district offers, led us to place a strong priority on maintaining these necessary supports. Further, as also explained previously, there was a need to enhance and augment our existing staff to meet the aforementioned needs.

“Over the course of the days between the preliminary budget and the final budget, the board and administration received extensive feedback and advocacy relative to the staff positions proposed for cut. As the community is aware, many of these positions were reinstated.

“While, the board and administration, up until recently, did not receive feedback relative to the busing cuts, the insights which we have gained through inclusive and collaborative conversations in the last several days led us to a conclusion; a conclusion which ultimately led to the restoration of these routes and the courtesy/ hazardous busing.

“When proposing cuts, it is very rare for any cut not to be considered and perceived to be something that is “nonnegotiable”, and which must be retained in the budget. However, the insight gained from the more recent advocacy relative to hazardous courtesy busing, is that there is a difference between a “perceived” nonnegotiable and a “real” nonnegotiable.

“It is safe to say, that with all things remaining equal, and without additional enhancements to ensure safe pedestrian thoroughfares including the installation of sidewalks throughout the Township, the school district must make every effort to maintain this courtesy/hazardous busing service moving forward. We will also renew our efforts to work collaboratively with the township administration in this regard.

“This singular lesson in of itself is, and will be, tremendously instructive and helpful in the construction of future budgets. However, there are certainly other more general lessons learned.

“First, the administration and board will continue to make every effort to actively engage all of our constituents early and often in the budget process. By doing this, we ensure that we are privy to the greatest amount of feedback as early in the process as possible. While this does not guarantee that the decisions that the administration and board ultimately make relative to the budget will be unanimously supported, it helps to ensure that we have all relevant and salient information and perspectives to help inform those decisions.

“Perhaps, there may also be lessons to be learned as a community. Amongst other takeaways, I am hopeful that the public has concluded that this board, administration, and your superintendent, are acting earnestly, amidst unfathomably challenging times, to serve the school district and its children with integrity and honesty. Further, I'm hopeful that we have demonstrated ourselves to be as responsive as possible to the feedback from our constituents.

“With the promise of more inclusive, efficient, and effective processes for gathering feedback, and combined with these insights relative to the character and values of the board and administration, perhaps in the future, we may aspire to engage in our discourse and even disagree in a civil, respectful, and constructive manner.”

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