South Huntington transportation committee recommends moving sixth grade to Memorial, opening Silas Wood as pre-K; proposes multi‑year bus purchase plan

The South Huntington Union Free School District's transportation committee recommended that the district move sixth‑grade students to the Memorial School building and convert Silas Wood into a pre‑K center, while pursuing a three‑ to five‑year plan to expand the district-owned bus fleet and reduce reliance on private vendors.

The recommendation followed a transportation committee presentation to the Board of Education in which Superintendent for Business Mike Conway and Walt Whitman High School Principal Dr. John Murphy summarized staffing, equipment and run counts, and engineers from R and M Engineering presented a traffic study assessing two scenarios: shifting sixth graders to Memorial and centralizing pre‑K programs at Silas Wood.

The study, presented by traffic engineer Kian Cody of R and M Engineering, modeled intersections along Pigeon Hill Road and nearby streets and concluded the two proposed scenarios would produce only “minor impacts” on roadway levels of service. Cody said the analysis showed “there's going to be minor impacts in both scenarios,” naming the library driveway and one Silas‑area intersection as spots with slightly higher delays while most intersections would remain at current service levels.

The committee report summarized current transportation resources and usage: the district currently has roughly 37 large buses and 27 vans covering about 51 in‑district runs on an average day; the district's contracted vendor, Educational Bus, provides about 23 large buses and 12 vans covering approximately 33 runs. Conway told the board the transportation department includes “approximately 54 drivers, 10 matrons, and 4 mechanics” and that late‑activity buses run at Stimson and Silas Wood.

The committee identified four goals: prioritize student safety and family needs; pursue cost‑saving measures; develop a 3–5 year bus purchase plan to bring more runs in‑house; and commission or use independent traffic analysis to reduce congestion. Conway said the district has already taken back “3 and a half routes” this year and estimates a rough per‑run saving of about $70,000 if runs are operated directly rather than contracted (based on an average contracted large‑bus route cost of about $125,000 and an estimated $55,000 total cost per district driver with benefits).

The presentation also addressed state policy and long‑term fleet planning. Conway summarized state timelines for electrification and recent budget activity: “all new bus purchases must be electric by 2027, and those buses on the road must be electric by 2035,” and he told the board that preliminary district estimates place the non‑vehicle infrastructure cost for electrification north of $10.5 million in today’s dollars. He noted uncertainty on vehicle availability, vendor capacity and federal/state funding, and added that the district is preparing an electrification plan for NYSERDA to support any extension requests under recent state guidance.

The committee offered several implementation recommendations and next steps: prepare a formal resolution to reopen Memorial (needed to secure a New York State BEDS number and related state aid), post the traffic‑study backup information on the district website, draft a formal request to the Suffolk County Police second precinct for a crossing guard at the Memorial/library area, and send a letter to the Town of Huntington requesting sidewalk reviews near Memorial and other pedestrian safety improvements. Dr. Murphy said staff would prioritize acquiring buses before expanding in‑house runs and that any schedule adjustments would be timed with fleet growth.

Board members asked technical and timing questions; engineers said the models did not incorporate local population growth beyond routine projections and that most traffic shifts would be redistributions of existing district trips rather than new trips, which helped explain the study’s modest impacts.

No formal board resolution to change building assignments or to purchase buses was taken at the meeting. The committee recommended the district proceed with the Memorial/Silas reconfiguration and with phased fleet expansion; a formal resolution to reopen Memorial and obtain a BEDS number was listed as an action for a future board meeting.

Next steps listed by staff include finalizing the NYSERDA electrification plan, continuing to take back routes incrementally as vehicles and drivers become available, preparing the formal paperwork to request a crossing guard from the Suffolk County Police Department, and posting the traffic‑study materials online for public review.