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The LSTA sure is frustrating.
On Friday my daughters got picked up an hour late.
On Monday morning they did not get picked up at all!
I zoomed home to drive my daughters to school because the bus did not show up.
After trying to reach Jay's for 45 minutes straight, we finally got through to them. They explained to us, "oh, that bus, we don't yet have that route figured out yet. We still need to figure out the route!"
We asked, "why didn't you call the school and notify them to send a text to the parents?" They had no answer for us.
That's my daughters' situation.
My boys were told straight up that there is no bus for them.
To me it sounds like dollars and cents.
The LSTA came into the picture, telling us confidently that if they get all the bussing money plus a little extra from all the parents, they will provide both mandatory and courtesy bussing.
However, my sons who are mandatory students do not get any bussing.
It seems that the bus companies have now realized that routes with mostly courtesy students comes out more profitable as the bus doesn't need to travel very far.
This all makes me wonder if the LSTA is truly living up to their lofty vows or if they are simply pocketing the profits??
As previously reported here on FAA News, the Lakewood Development Corporation gave LSTA a $2 million loan to ensure that they have sufficient wherewithal to get school buses rolling for the start of the new school year, without needing to wait for the State funding to kick in. The loan is from UEZ funding.
Mayor Coles explained that UEZ funding - which is typically used to boost business economics in the Township - would be appropriate for this loan, as, this loan would support the ability of the Township’s economic resources to operate with a predictable and smooth flow of traffic; I.e. school buses for students would ensure that the parents can remain at their businesses without needing to carpool their children.
It once again raises eyebrows when a loan of such a significant sum, which was given "to ensure that the parents can remain at their businesses without needing to carpool their children," doesn't seem to be living up to it's very purpose!
When asked for comment, LDC Executive Director David Klein and the LDC Board of Trustees just gave blank looks.
Someone commented that "the LDC simply provided a $2 Million dollar loan, they don't run the bussing. Call the LSTA if you want to complain as David Klein and the LDC Board have nothing to do with that."
That's like the Zoning Board saying, "we only approved the apartment building, we have no responsibility regarding the traffic mess it caused!"
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6 comments:
There is such a simple solution here but Kay’s absolutely refuses to spend the money to implement it. Almost every school bus in the country currently has a tracking system with an app where parents can see where the bus is up to in the route. Jays refuses to implement it. I don’t see why at this point it isn’t a legal requirement.
It's absolutely asinine to think that the LDC can have any input on the bus scheduling. Your analogy of the zoning board is fatally flawed. You should rather ask it's like having a bank give you a loan and then blame the bank because the business is not successful. That analogy is a good one and obviously no one would blame the bank for the poor management of the business they gave the loan to.
The actual method is Corrupt typically the provider of services is beholden to the people paying for the services. However in this case the LSTA is not beholden to the parents, since the parents aren't billed by them rather by the school. Call the school with your issues they tell you contact the LSTA. Call the LSTA no one picks up the phone since they couldn't care less what your issue was since you're not paying them. Better yet, the school needs to collect the money from all the parents before the LSTA will give them service so if you withhold the money you are ruining it for everybody. Have the LST a bill the parents directly everything will change.
Perhaps The bus companies can text the parents directly if a bus is late or canceled.
And then we’re told that if we complain, then jays won’t pick up our route again. So we’re not allowed to complain, our kids are either picked up 40 min late or not picked up at all. And we’re told to be grateful we have bussing at all. I’m so sick of this every single year!!! Bussing is not a luxury!
@Anon 9:45
Imagine I received a loan from the LDC to expand my business. Then I run my business into the ground and I don't have money to repay the loan. Will LDC sit back and say, "that's cool, hey, I'm sure you tried your best and you meant well," or will they poke around my business and ask why I didn't run it properly?
The comparison to the Zoning Board is perfect because the developers always promise the Board that their application will not have any negative impact on the surrounding area. In that case the developer should definitely be held up to his word once things get out of hand.
On the other hand, your comparison to the bank loan is very out of place. If you were an investor in a bank and the bank gave loans freely without keeping a close eye on who gets what, you definitely would blame the bank for the poor management of the business they gave the loan to! Just think about the banks that went out of business because of giving unchecked loans. (First Republic Bank, Heartland Tri-State Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank all come to mind).
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