Stoughton committee denies appeal to waive bus fee for Young Way-area families; superintendent to seek safety and waiver info

At a Sept. 3 special meeting, the Stoughton School Committee voted 4-0-1 to deny a request to waive a locally set pay-and-ride bus fee for families in the Young Way/Smith/Swallow Lane area, with one member abstaining.

Superintendent Dr. Joe Baeta said he could not unilaterally grant an exception under current district policy and that the committee alone has the authority to change the fee policy. He said central office found no written record that previous administrators formally waived the fee for the families at issue.

The families, represented in a written submission by Anna Smith, asked the district to exempt them from the fee, saying pick-up conditions around Young Way made walking unsafe and that previous exceptions had been made informally. "We neither size has any paperwork," Baeta said in describing the central office review. He added that, "these folks have the right to appeal to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education under the transportation policy."

Baeta told the committee he had, as a temporary measure to avoid service interruptions on the first day of school, reserved seats for the affected students pending the committee's decision; those families had not yet paid the fee. He recommended the committee either maintain the existing pay-and-ride policy, accept a one-time exception (which he warned could prompt similar requests), or create a formal appeal process at the committee level or an internal superintendent-level process for future cases.

Committee members pressed on two connected issues: safety of the pick-up location and the district's local fee policy. Members noted that Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) guidance governs where districts must provide transportation for safety reasons, but that fee and pay-and-ride decisions are local. Several members said the usual practice when parents report an "unsafe pickup" is to refer the location to police or town traffic engineers for a safety review; Baeta said he would contact the town engineer and the police for recommendations and would provide the committee with any correspondence between him and legal counsel Joe Emerson that had been placed in the packet.

During discussion, School Committee member Karen moved to postpone the matter six days so families could appear at the regularly scheduled Sept. 9 meeting; that motion was seconded but ultimately not the controlling motion on the floor. A subsequent motion to deny the appeal was moved and seconded and then approved by roll call, 4-0-1. The record shows one abstention and four affirmative votes; committee members recorded on the roll call included Jillian (aye), Jennifer (aye), Armando (aye) and one member listed in the meeting as voting aye; Karen recorded an abstention. The committee directed Baeta to seek further information from the town engineer and police and to contact the families to invite them either to apply for a fee waiver or to appear at the Sept. 9 meeting.

The committee and central office reiterated that state law creates a separate process and that families maintain the right to file a transportation complaint with DESE if they disagree with the district's outcome.

The committee's decision and the superintendent's follow-up steps were included on the official minutes. The committee scheduled the next regular meeting for Sept. 9, when families may appear to present additional information.