Montville board terminates Hilldale contractor, pledges changes after special‑education bus incident; district highlights $240,000 savings from in‑house fleet

The Montville Township Board of Education approved an addendum terminating a contractor working at Hilldale Elementary and discussed new safety measures after a special‑education student was left on a bus for about two and a half hours, officials said Wednesday.

Superintendent Tom Gorman told the board the Hilldale construction work ‘‘has not been satisfactory’’ and the district will seek a new contractor to finish the project. The termination was part of the consent agenda and was called out as an addendum for action. During the subsequent roll call the board approved the consent items; one board member abstained specifically on section K, the addendum.

Separately, the board spent substantial time addressing a safety incident in which a student in the district’s ESY program was left on a bus. Parent and community speakers described delayed notification and urged stronger, nonhuman safeguards for vulnerable students. ‘‘This lack of a policy in place to account for our most vulnerable students is frankly unacceptable,’’ said Katie Sobel, a parent who addressed the board during public comment.

Superintendent Gorman and other officials said multiple immediate steps were implemented after the incident. Gorman said the district notified police and child protective services, cooperated with a criminal investigation and tightened procedures the following day. He said the district is moving further to reduce future risk by bringing more runs in‑house: the district has added three new small buses this year to reach a fleet of five (four 24‑passenger vehicles and one nine‑passenger vehicle) and estimates net savings of about $240,000 annually from returning contracted routes to district management.

Gorman said the in‑house fleet will be equipped with internal cameras and GPS tracking and that district staff will ride special‑education runs to provide a second safety check. ‘‘If I take the amount that we are saving by not offering those contracts outside of the district against the cost of the drivers, and the maintenance of the vehicles, we are netting a $240,000 profit or savings as a result of pulling those particular routes back in house,’’ Gorman told the board.

Board members said they were alarmed by the incident and wanted stronger, technology‑backed checks. Parents suggested automatic student check‑in systems and ID badges that trigger a parent notification when a student boards or disembarks. The superintendent said district staff are evaluating software for parent notifications and for bus check‑in, and that a recent special‑education parent meeting and Q&A has been posted to the district website.

The superintendent also told the board that the bus driver involved failed to follow the statutory procedure requiring a driver to walk the bus and check for students when arriving at a school and when returning to the depot. The driver has been charged in the matter, the superintendent said; prosecutors have been involved, and the district said it will not continue to use the contracted provider named Jersey Kids transportation on those runs.

Board members commended the administration for rapid procedural changes but several parents said they were not notified promptly and asked for better, faster communications. The district said it will continue to evaluate technology and staffing changes, and to report back to special‑education families.

The termination of the Hilldale contractor and the transportation measures were included in the consent agenda the board approved that evening. The board asked administration to return with details on software options, timelines for GPS/camera installation and procedures for staff to accompany vulnerable students on runs.