By:Karenlyn Barone
The reason? Several students allegedly set fire to their school blazers at the back of a bus, creating a potentially dangerous situation and causing "significant damage." School district administrators and parents who send their children to the private Catholic high school are now left to piece together the details of the incident and scramble to find alternative transportation for the students.
According to a dispatcher's report filed by Margaret Geist, depot manager for the MTA, she received a call from her command center at 3 p.m. on June 4, reporting disruptive children on a bus. She met the bus, which was transporting children from Kellenberg to Lynbrook, at Hempstead and Franklin avenues. In the report, Geist stated that when she arrived, she saw that "two back windows on both sides of the bus were swinging open, kids were yelling and ripping up their uniform jackets."
When she entered the bus, she found "ripped uniform jackets piled up by the front door and in the rear door well." The report went on to state that students in the front of the bus said they smelled smoke, "which came from someone in the rear of the bus burning a jacket with a lighter."
Referring to the incident in his letter to Kellenberg High, Francis X. Ryan, the MTA's senior director of operations, wrote, "Their actions put all personnel at risk -- bus operator, students and the surrounding community. It is, therefore, unfortunate, that we have no other recourse but to eliminate these runs which directly serve Bishop Kellenberg."
MTA is contracted by the Lynbrook and East Rockaway school districts to provide transportation to district students who attend Kellenberg, which is in Uniondale. The districts have a longstanding relationship with the MTA, which has transported students to the private school, which is outside the district, for some 20 years.
The cost for MTA to transport the 54 students from East Rockaway to Kellenberg is about $40,000 per year, according to Angela Eisert, director of finance and operations for the district. "It will be a lot more if we have to go to [private] school buses," she said. "It would be about $50,000 per bus, and we would need at least two."
Complicating the problem is the fact that the districts' approved budgets have no clause or extra cash for the situation they now face in finding alternative, more expensive transportation. "We purchase MTA bus passes according to the number of school days in a month and the number of students who need them," said Eisert. "We have no way to know an actual figure, but judging from other bids, it would be a significant difference -- more than double [the cost]."
Dr. Arnold Dodge, superintendent of the East Rockaway School District said, "We are all concerned about this issue, as are the other school districts we have been in touch with. We told our parent group that we are taking this very seriously, and we will meet the responsibility to transport their children."
The per-year cost for the Lynbrook school district for busing students who attend Kellenberg is about $25,000. The district purchases passes on a monthly basis for the 39 Kellenberg students.
"The parents have presented their concerns, and were very receptive to having a matron on the bus," said Dr. Philip Cicero, Lynbrook district superintendent. "They were not adversarial at all, and we do have enough time to resolve this -- and we will. We are trying to get the MTA back with the promise of a matron on the bus."
The cost of a matron would be shared by the districts, as well as the Malverne, Roosevelt and Freeport districts, which also send students to Kellenberg. Both Dodge and Cicero said that a matron would be beneficial in cutting down on the behavior problems that have occurred on buses this year.
Dodge confirmed that there were some students from East Rockaway who attend Kellenberg who had their bus passes suspended earlier in the year, due to misconduct. "I want to emphasize that you can lose this privilege if you misbehave," said Dodge. "Our intention is to get the miscreants off the bus so that children who do behave are not painted with the same brush, and they can get to school safely."
Ryan, 15, who will be a sophomore at Kellenberg in September, spoke openly about the activities on the daily bus route and the mischievousness of the students. "We do stuff on the bus, like play red light, and wrestle in the aisles," said the honor student, who declined to give his last name. "I didn't know what happened that day the kids burned the blazers, because it didn't happen on my bus, but we did rip up our blazers, too."
Ryan said that the roughhousing is never a problem on the bus to school in the morning, because "everyone is either still half asleep, doing their homework or listening to their Walkmans." According to Ryan, it is the afternoon bus that sometimes has inappropriate behavior, and he doesn't think that will ever change. "I don't think the kids will stop fooling around on the bus just because they got caught burning their blazers," he said. "They should, but I don't think they will."
Kellenberg High President Father Philip K. Eichner, in a letter to parents, advised them to contact their respective school districts to resolve any issues regarding the suspended transportation. He wrote, in part, "We have tried to address this problem on a number of occasions during the school year, but with little success. The behavior of certain students on these buses has jeopardized the service for all."
"The buses are contracted through the school district," said Marina Trentacosta, dean of students at Kellenberg. "Our role is certainly cooperative and supportive, but the school bus is not in our jurisdiction."
When asked what punishment the students involved in the blazer-lighting incident received, Trentacosta said, "We are still gathering information, and we can only act once we have accurate information."
Eileen Kear, whose child is a student at Kellenberg, says she has complained about inappropriate behavior on the bus for the past two years, but has never gotten the response she hoped for. "Kellenberg needs to take responsibility for the students," said Kear. "I know it's not on their property, but these are Kellenberg students. I feel that all around, the ball was dropped."
