Millburn Adds Route for Student Busing

The Millburn School Board announced it will add an additional bus route to accommodate more students.

The district announced it will change its original timeline and add a route for 50 new students and late applications.

"We knew we'd be busing more students than last year," business administrator, Steven Di Geronimo, said. "What we didn't know is that many of families missed the submission deadlines and they too need transportation."

The district added the students on the wait-list to bus routes last week as a step to help families instead of waiting until this week, the original date. The deadline for the busing application was June 30. 

The middle and high school routes have the highest number of students. The district approved a resolution last week to get quotes on adding another route for the high school. 

The board reassured the public the buses are not overcrowded. 

"At no time are there more than 54 children on a bus," Di Geronimo said. "When a bus is filled as it goes through its stops a back up bus is called to complete the route as the filled bus continues."

In the first week, a back up bus was only called in once. 

According to Di Geronimo, the elementary schools could get better by getting the busses loaded quicker at the end of the day. The district aims to have busses routes under 30 minutes.

"Our goal is to be quick to identify problems and take action to fix what we can," Di Geronimo said. "Safety is a primary concern. There is nothing like a parent's concern for safety and we share that concern."