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Students and parents urge board to restore spring busing for high school crew
Summary
High school rowers and parents told the Egg Harbor Township board that spring-season transportation cuts force families to provide costly travel, create safety concerns on busy roadways, and limit equitable access to a scholarship-producing sport; district staff said a transportation review and a proposal are in progress.
Students, parents and community members used the board’s public comment period to press the Egg Harbor Township Board of Education to restore full spring-season busing for the high school crew team.
Rocka Ricardi, a high school crew team member, told the board the current arrangement provides a bus only for the first month of spring and then ends on April 1. “Many of our students rely on their parents to drive them to and from practice…a lot of our team’s parents have prior obligations such as work,” Ricardi said, asking the board to provide busing “throughout all of our spring season to bring us to practice efficiently and safely.”
Several teammates and parents backed the request. Shane Butcher, a varsity crew member, said the time and travel to the boathouse make parental transportation difficult and can jeopardize parents’ jobs. “So I humbly ask all of you as members of a board of education to please help us reach more students by not limiting bus transportation this spring,” he said.
Parent speakers underscored equity and safety concerns. Daniel Corkran said the team pays for much of its own equipment and that the district’s spring buses are the primary school-funded support for on-water practices; removing those buses creates an access barrier. Liz Butcher, speaking as a parent, said the lack of full-season busing has safety implications—she described students running along the Black Horse Pike and seniors illegally driving peers to practices—and argued that limiting transportation effectively shuts some students out of an opportunity-rich sport.
Superintendent Dr. Gio acknowledged the concerns and told speakers the district is “seriously working on it.” Board members asked for details about practice start and end times; students said they typically leave school to arrive at the boathouse by about 2:30 p.m. and row from roughly 3 p.m. to 5–6 p.m. Multiple board members expressed support for pursuing a solution and said transportation planning and a January review are underway.
No formal motion or vote was taken in response to public comment; staff said they will continue work on a transportation proposal and return with details to the board in its next review cycle.
