School transportation in
Lawrence, yes or no?
Peter Larocque, Lawrence School
Committee
 In last month’s article
I referred to the action taken by
Lawrence City Officials that brought this
issue of School Transportation to the
front and center for major discussion in
the FY09 Lawrence City Budget process.
This was the line item that was left out
of the FY09 School Department‘s
Budget presented to the Lawrence City
Council in May of 2008 by the Mayor and
the Budget and Finance Director. But in
the original Lawrence School Department’s
FY09 Budget adopted by the Lawrence
School Committee in April 2008 it was
included.
To fix this unfortunate situation, there
had to be an additional appropriation
given to the City Council for approval
that returned the Transportation Line
item funds to the FY09 School budget. It
was approved along with the FY09 city
budget. Now I would like to proceed in
this article regarding future budgets and
whether or not they should include school
transportation.
When we talk about Lawrence School
Transportation we must first make it
clear of what exactly we are talking
about. There are several types of
transportation services that are provided
by the Lawrence Public School Department
with each service having it’s own
set of rules and guidelines which some
are protected by State and Federal Laws
that are not part of this discussion.
For instance, we provide transportation
for our Special Education Needs Students,
which is a door-to-door service, which is
mandated by law, therefore is not part of
this discussion. We also provide
transportation for our General Education
Students who are eligible for this
service according to district policy and
state law. It is in this category of
transportation that the City of Lawrence
may make changes in its budget if it so
desires. What state law protects is
transportation for children in grades k
to six and live outside of the two-mile
range from the school they attend along
with students classified as Homeless.
Our School District Policy has been to
include transportation for High School
Students and Parochial Students who fall
under the provision of living outside the
two-mile range for safety reasons. These
services have been part of the Lawrence
School Department Transportation for
years. So to just eliminate these
services by a stroke of the pen is in my
opinion disrespectful to the parents or
guardians of students who have come
accustom to receiving these services. I
do not believe that this was done
maliciously, but it was done with a
tremendous lack of forethought as to how
this decision would impact the Citizens
of Lawrence.
Having said that, I understand in these
economic times that we as a city find
ourselves in; all available ways that we
can save money should be on the table for
discussion. If in the future those who
are responsible to provide ways of saving
money for the city want to cut
transportation service to students who
are not in the k-to sixth grade and live
outside the two mile range and who are
not in the Homeless Category, can do so
if they go about it in a civil manner and
provide enough time for parents or
guardians to make other arrangements for
their children.
For example, lets say by
September, the beginning of the school
year of 2011 –2012, the City of
Lawrence will no longer provide
transportation for High School Students
and the others who are not covered by
state law. Or another example would be in
this same time period we would only
provide transportation for the following
months, which are: December, January,
February, and March. The reason I suggest
this is because of the condition of the
roads and sidewalks in the winter months.
For some reason property owners have a
hard time shoveling their walkways and
our children would be forced to walk the
streets, which puts them in harms way. If
this proposal were to become reality,
then the penalty for snow-covered
walkways should be a hefty fine and it
must be enforced. Then may I also suggest
that the city use this money to keep our
crosswalks well painted and employ more
crossing guards for our major
intersections. These conditions are not
optional, they are a must if you want to
have our children walk to school.
So, here we have Plan A which states that
beginning the school year 2011 –2012
the City of Lawrence will only be
providing transportation for students who
are in grades k-to six and live two miles
or more from school and to students who
are classified as homeless. Plan B states
that only in the months of November,
December, January and February will
transportation be provided to those
students not covered by plan A. Both of
these plans allows for parents or
guardians time to make adjustments to
their schedule and make other
arrangements for their children to get to
school. This also provides time for the
city of Lawrence to get their act
together and make the changes necessary
so that our streets and sidewalks are
safe for our children to walk to school.
Something else that we should mention is
the health benefit that our children
would receive from walking to and from
school on a daily basis. Childhood
obesity is an epidemic according to the
United States Acting Surgeon General Rear
Admiral Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H.,
in a speech he delivered during his visit
to Lawrence on June 30,2008. Walking is a
healthy exercise that could provide the
help needed in fighting obesity for some
of our students.
So in conclusion, if in the future the
City of Lawrence decided to eliminate
providing transportation to students who
are not protected by law, it could do so
only after providing the safety measures
previously discussed. This would take an
all out commitment from every citizen of
Lawrence along with its city officials,
elected or employed, including the
Lawrence Police Department enforcing the
Law of the roads. This effort must
include all parents or guardians, voicing
their opinion on this topic. So please
let us all give this some thought before
we rush and use our erasers in preparing
our future budgets. This is a decision
that involves the entire city and must be
debated and discussed openly and honestly
at future City Budget Forums conducted by
the Mayor of the City and the Budget and
Finance Director. This is not a decision
to be left up to POLITICIANS. God Bless
peterlarocque@hotmail.com
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