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Toms River board approves 2025–26 transportation routes after parent raises unsafe bus drop-off
Summary
After a parent reported substitute drivers leaving 17 elementary students at a stop that required crossing Route 9, the Toms River Regional School District board voted to approve the 2025–26 transportation routes and hazardous-route designations and said it would follow up with transportation staff.
The Toms River Regional School District board voted to approve the 2025–26 transportation routes, including hazardous-route designations, at its regular meeting after a public commenter reported a safety incident involving a substitute bus driver.
At the podium, a parent-trusted speaker identified as Miss Whitaker told the board a family whose child attends Pine Beach Elementary said a substitute driver “let 17 kids, including mine, off at a bus stop over a mile away from the house” and that the students were forced to cross Route 9 where it merges with Route 166. “This is a problem,” she said, urging the board and administration to contact transportation and reach out to the family.
Board members moved the transportation item and approved the routes on a roll-call vote. The motion passed with board members recorded voting yes: Matarazzo, Jubert, Contessa, Kidney, Pascarella and Capone. The vote followed the public comment but the board did not announce a specific change to the approved routes during the meeting.
Superintendent Mr. Sitta and other staff were present; the meeting record shows the board accepted the district’s hazardous-route designations as presented on the agenda. A public commenter said she had contacted school and transportation phone lines multiple times without what she described as a satisfactory response.
The meeting record does not include a live rebuttal from transportation staff or a declaration of a corrective action at the time of the vote. The public comment called for the district to identify the family and reach out directly; the board’s roll call and approvals indicate the board adopted the transportation plan as submitted.
Next steps the administration indicated in the meeting included the standard follow-up channels: the board referred the matter to district staff for additional investigation and follow up, though no timetable was provided at the meeting. Community members seeking additional details on specific stop assignments or corrective actions were advised to contact district transportation offices directly.
