Sewanhaka Central High School District used the address of a private home, not the address of Floral Park Memorial High School, when recalculating bus routes for Floral Park students this year, documents show. The recalculation, which took place at the start of the school year, left 62 students without busing access who had been taking the school bus to school for years.
To be eligible for busing, students must live 1.5 miles away from school. Sewanhaka’s redrawing of student bus routes with a new software, called TransFinder, frustrated parents and students, who said the change wasn’t properly communicated to them. They expressed confusion over how they could be considered to live 1.5 miles away from school despite not moving to another address.
A handful of parents, who said children who suddenly lost busing access must now take a 30-minute, roughly 1.5 mile walk to school across busy Jericho Turnpike, have filed legal appeals with the district to attempt to restore the access their families have had for years.
One appeal to the New York Board of Education, filed by parent Celena Ditchev, produced documents showing that the district used 226 Bellmore St., the address of a private home, as the route’s end point when determining eligibility and calculating new routes this year.
The address is near to a gate on Bellmore Street, the closest point of entry to the school grounds for the 62 students who were determined to no longer be eligible for busing. Ditchev and other parents have said that gate was typically locked in previous years, was not traditionally used as a school entrance and is far away from the nearest regularly unlocked door of the high school, meaning students still have to walk across the entire school grounds to find an unlocked door. This adds time and distance to their walk.
Sewanhaka did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It is unclear whether the owner of the Bellmore Street address was ever informed that the district was using their home to calculate bus routes or why the district would use an address other than the actual school building to determine busing eligibility.
Parents have said they are concerned for their children’s safety walking to school, particularly because they must cross Jericho Turnpike, which is a major “dangerous” intersection with a high volume of traffic.
School board members and Superintendent Regina Agrusa have asked the Village of Floral Park to install additional traffic guards at the Jericho Turnpike intersections where the school suggests students cross. Floral Park Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald said an agreement between the district and the village is in the works, and that the school will pay for approximately two crossing guards the village will hire.
Ditchev’s state Board of Education appeal remains pending, along with other parents’ appeals. As it stands, Floral Park Memorial High School students won’t be granted any temporary restoration of busing while the state considers whether the district acted properly in its recalculation of bus routes
