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Great Neck board schedules forum after widespread complaints about new bus routes, parents cite safety and tracking failures
Summary
After weeks of route changes and late or missing buses, Great Neck Public Schools administration and vendor We Transport will host a transportation forum Oct. 16; parents at the meeting described long waits, corner pickups that cross busy roads, lack of tracking and multiple missed stops.
The Great Neck Board of Education and district administrators said they will host a public transportation forum on Oct. 16 after parents and students raised widespread safety and reliability complaints about new bus routes and stop assignments.
District Superintendent Dr. Bossert told the board the administration and vendor We Transport are working to adjust electronic routes and bus stops and to address driver shortages; he invited the public to the Oct. 16 forum so the district can explain ridership counts, fleet numbers and costs and solicit community input on a possible voter referendum to change transportation policy.
Parents and students who spoke during open time described repeated late buses, buses that did not stop at assigned corners, lengthy rides for young children and stops that require crossing busy roads without sidewalks. A student, Kevin Kyu, said his afternoon bus was “often 15 minutes late” and sometimes did not show, forcing him to call his parents. Several parents said tracking tools were unavailable or unhelpful; one parent said We Transport did not answer repeated calls and many parents reported receiving only automated email responses.
District staff acknowledged the routes were created electronically and said human review and field checks are underway. Dr. Bossert said software-generated routes sometimes miss local knowledge and that district and We Transport personnel are visiting stops to make safety and efficiency adjustments. He also said some requests — for example, restoration of door-to-door service for students without an Individualized Education Program (IEP) — cannot be accommodated without voter action.
Board counsel, Mr. Bloch, advised the board on the procedure for placing a transportation referendum before voters; the board said it is continuing to examine whether to pursue that option. The district will also continue to work with We Transport to reassign or retrain drivers, refine routes and install more on-the-ground routing checks.
Parents urged immediate fixes rather than waiting for long procurement or referendum timetables. Multiple speakers described bus stops placed on roads without sidewalks, buses that pass by a house without stopping even when the child is the only rider at that location, and sessions when two buses arrived for the same stop while another route was missed.
District officials said they will analyze the concerns raised at the meeting, review route assignments with driver input and report back to the community after the Oct. 16 forum. The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled to follow that forum.
What happens next: the administration and We Transport will present route and cost information at a district forum on Oct. 16; the board continues to consult counsel about a possible transportation referendum, and staff will continue to field route and safety changes in the weeks ahead.
