West Genesee Superintendent Christopher R. Brown took to his blog, Notes from the Superintendent, Tuesday morning to address criticisms of the new transfer system raised at last Wednesday’s school board meeting.
About six parents of children who attend Bishop Ludden and Holy Family School attended last Wednesday’s West Genesee school board meeting to voice their concerns about the district’s new transfer system.
At the meeting, Brown outlined why the district uses the transfer system for private and parochial students and why it has farther bus stops for many of the middle and high school students.
“In a nutshell,” Brown said in his blog, “we transport 4,800 students daily to seven West Genesee locations and 32 private and parochial school destinations. With this transfer system we have 37 students who ride 60 minutes or longer to or from school.”
According to Brown, pressures from the state to place more students on buses and to save money were key contributing factors.
Of the 4,800 students the district transports, 272 of them are from private and parochial schools.
The use of the transfer system was an action the district took after cutting $8 million of its own expenses.
The district has taken steps, implementing the transfer system to maximize the capacity of each school bus as well as increasing the walking distances to bus for its students in the middle and high schools.
Brown said he does not intend for the transfer system to be on the agenda for its regularly scheduled school board meeting Wednesday, Oct. 19
“We have made as many changes as we can at this point and will likely move forward with what we have,” Brown said in an email.
