Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Transportation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Parent asks school committee to restore elementary busing, cites safety and childcare impacts
Summary
A Swampscott parent urged the school committee at the May 8 meeting to increase elementary school bus availability after families learned some students who previously received service would not have it next year; the parent cited Paradise Road crash data and the effect on working parents.
A Swampscott parent urged the school committee on May 8 to restore or expand elementary school bus service after recent district notices told some families they would not receive busing next year.
Rachel Terrace of Middlesex Avenue told the committee that, for the first year of the new elementary school, the district had offered buses for families living 1.6 miles or more from the school. She said families who were less than 2 miles from the new Swampscott Elementary School (SES) were recently notified they will not receive bus service for the coming year.
Terrace said the change affects many working families and raises safety concerns because children may have to cross Paradise Road to reach the school. She cited Massachusetts Department of Transportation data for 2020–2024 indicating that accidents on Paradise Road accounted for roughly one‑third of the town’s crashes during that period. “Without the bus, parents who have been able to continue working throughout the day will now have to take time off from work to drop off and pick up their children,” she told the committee.
Terrace asked the committee to consider options rather than give an immediate negative response: “Instead of a knee jerk no, I'm asking that instead you say, what if we could?” She asked staff and committee members to work with families and the school department to find ways to increase bus access that would support safety and working parents.
The committee did not take immediate action during public comment; the request provides staff direction to consider the concern and, if appropriate, report back with options for routing, cost, or phased approaches.
