No easy walk to new school

ALLENTOWN — Having no safe route for Allentown students to walk or bike to the new middle school has worried and angered some parents.

The Upper Freehold Regional School District experienced a significant loss in state aid for the 2010-11 school year. As a costsavings measure, the district initiated a fee-based courtesy subscription busing program.

In accordance with New Jersey statute, school districts have to provide transportation to elementary and middle school students living more than two miles from school and high school students living more than two and a half miles from school. The district is not responsible for providing transportation to other students.

Now that the school district has opened a middle school on a new campus up the road from the High Street campus, students living in Allentown, just under the two-mile mark, do not qualify for transportation. All families deemed ineligible for free transportation, based on state parameters, will have to pay $275 per child with a family maximum of $500 for the year for bus transportation. If a family decides against paying the fee, their children will have to get a ride or walk to school. The route to the new campus off Route 524 traverses areas without sidewalks.

Jill Morrison, of Allentown, said her house falls 300 feet under the two-mile mark.

“I chose not to pay for busing,” she said.

Morrison walked the route to school from Allentown and discovered that students would have to cross Route 524 at busy intersections twice to keep on the legal school route because sidewalks stop in Allentown and do not continue until the end of the driveway of the school campus. She said the walk took her half an hour.

Superintendent of Schools Dick Fitzpatrick said the creation of new sidewalks falls under the jurisdiction of the municipalities of Allentown and Upper Freehold.

“It’s hard for the communities to respond because of budget cuts,” he said.

Morrison said the municipalities should look into the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School grants.

Board of Education President Lisa Herzer said she had sent both municipalities information about the state’s grant program.

“Don’t believe it’s just Allentown students,” Herzer said. “My Upper Freehold child is affected as well.”

Herzer encouraged affected parents to attend Allentown and Upper Freehold municipal meetings to express their dissatisfaction with the walking route.

Morrison wanted to know if the district has provided both a parent pickup/drop-off area and bicycle racks at the new school, if her child has to use those means of getting to school. Middle school principal Mark Guterl said the school would have a parent pickup/drop-off area. Herzer encouraged parents to use car pools to minimize the traffic impact on the school site.

Fitzpatrick said the district is examining the bicycle rack issue, since it does not want to be held liable for any bicycling accidents on the unsafe route.

Morrison said, “If there’s no bicycle rack, [my child] will chain her bike to the flagpole. So, if you see one out there, it’s mine.”