East Ramapo board hears timetable for bus passes after transportation software upgrade

Superintendent Velusco and district transportation staff told the East Ramapo Board of Education that bus passes for students who registered by Aug. 15 will be mailed by the end of the week, while registrations received after April 1 or after Aug. 15 may not be processed until late September or early October.

The district upgraded its routing software to a newer system from Tyler Technologies and began the multi-week conversion in November, the district said. Eric Stark, who presented the transportation update, said the conversion involved skipping an intermediate software version and required daily technical meetings with Tyler staff to resolve data and routing issues.

Stark said the district expects to mail the “great majority” of public-school bus passes for students registered through Aug. 15 by Aug. 20 (the district alternately cited an “end of week” mailing date that falls on Aug. 20–21). He cautioned that a small number of passes may still need correction and that new students or transfers who missed contractual deadlines will be scheduled later; nonpublic school transportation requests are governed by an April 1 deadline, and applications received after that date typically are processed later in the fall.

The board and staff discussed the practical effects for families: if a new resident registers after the district’s cutoff, bus service may not begin until September 23 or early October, Stark said, because staff who handle routing are deploying across schools at the start of term and additional input work is required for new applications. The district transports tens of thousands of students across public and nonpublic routes; Stark said the district’s nonpublic program currently includes about 35,000 students and that the district transports more students than most districts outside New York City.

To respond to high call volume around the start of school, the district will activate a transportation hotline that forwards calls to multiple staff members once school begins (Sept. 4). Stark and other staff said the main transportation office number remains available and can handle routine questions until the hotline is activated; the hotline is intended specifically to ensure calls are answered during arrival and dismissal when many district staff are out of offices. The district identified four additional bilingual clerical staff who can be reassigned during peak call periods and said it will pull temporary support from other departments if necessary.

Trustees pressed staff for clearer status tracking for applications and bus passes; Stark agreed to provide numbers on processed applications and outstanding cases by the end of the week. Board members also asked for an explanation of how families can check application status; staff said they would provide that guidance to trustees and publish it for parents.

The district will also process nonpublic transportation applications and late-transfer requests in a separate schedule: applications made by the April 1 contractual deadline are being mailed this week; new requests that arrive after the deadline will be scheduled later, with an outside target in late September or early October.

The transportation presentation closed with staff committing to follow up with trustees on specific counts of unprocessed applications and to make clear to families how to check the status of a submitted application.

Less critical details: the district plans outreach at back-to-school events and to place transportation staff at back-to-school nights to assist parents with portal access and questions about routes.