By Nick Buglione and Joseph Kellard
The Courtesy Bus Company and union officials managed to hammer out a deal in a last-ditch bargaining session, after talks had broken down and a strike vote was taken.
"I'm pleased that the strike didn't happen, because I think the parents and the students would have been inconvenienced tremendously," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Herb Brown told the Herald on Monday.
The threat of a strike loomed large on Nov. 18, three days after bus drivers with the Westbury-based Transport Workers Union Local 252 rejected a proposal to settle the labor dispute.
Two weeks ago, when a strike seemed possible, Brown sent out letters to parents warning them that children might have to find alternative transportation to school the following week.
"I just wanted to take every precaution, and make sure parents know what we will be doing in case a strike occurs," Brown said at the time. "[A strike] would obviously have a profound effect on our ability to transport children to and from schools."
The bus service, however, remained intact and on time, administrators said.
If bus drivers did strike, it would have put a tremendous strain on Oceanside parents. The Courtesy Bus Company, a subsidiary of the Atlantic Express Transportation Group, provides Oceanside alone with 35 buses that pick up and drop off hundreds of kids daily.
Brown said that the traffic around certain Oceanside schools, in particular Schools 9 and 8 and the Kindergarten Center at School 6, would have increased to the point at which it would have been very difficult for a parent to take a child to and from school.
"We had contingency plans to make that difficult situation into a bearable situation, and I'm glad we didn't have to use them," said Brown.
All schools have since returned to normal schedules.
