Elected officials and parents continue demand for yellow bus service for 7th & 8th graders

Say it is unsafe for young students to cross busy intersections STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - To prevent more child deaths on Staten Island, elected officials are fighting for some level of restoration of the yellow bus service for seventh and eighth graders and students who must traverse six-lane roadways to catch a city bus to school.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - To prevent more child deaths on Staten Island, elected officials are fighting for some level of restoration of the yellow bus service for seventh and eighth graders and students who must traverse six-lane roadways to catch a city bus to school.

Assemblywoman Nichole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) and her colleagues held a press conference on the busy corner of Drumgoole Road West and Arthur Kill Road to show the kind of dangerous conditions that students - some as young as 9 years old - must deal with daily to get to class.

"The DOE has denied our yellow bus service," said Karen Dipalo of Annadale. "The hazards have not changed, they've only worsened due to the increase in traffic to the Eltingville transit center."

The hope is that the Department of Education will issue "hazard variances" for students who live less than one mile from school but must cross four lanes of traffic or more on one street to make it to an MTA bus stop.

"We've been engaged in an ongoing fight to provide school bus service for our children here on Staten Island," Ms. Malliotakis said. "We believe that is should be a revenue-neutral proposal."

Hazard variances would benefit students such as 9-year-old Vincent Dipalo, who the DOE expects to cross the intersection at Arthur Kill Road and Drumgoole Road West - 11 lanes of speeding traffic - as he does not live far enough away from his school, PS 42R, and his parents both work during the week, said Ms. Dipalo.

"We should get a variance, all of us, because more and more people are getting hurt by cars, and it's getting to be a problem," young Vincent said. "I feel very unsafe."

Hazard variances have been largely denied by the DOE because of a "like circumstances" clause it has cited, which means that if variances are granted on Staten Island, they would have to be granted in all the city's boroughs.

Bob McFeeley, of Midland Beach, has five children and has been battling the DOE for eight years trying to get hazard variances for his children who must cross Hylan and Midland avenues twice a day to get to and from school.

"A six-lane road is not safe for third graders to cross by themselves," McFeeley said. "And the bus has been empty for the last 10 years."


OVER 600 APPLICATIONS  
 

The city received 633 applications for hazard variances last year, and only three were approved said Community Education Council President Sam Pirozzolo, who felt that was a sign the system should be changed.

Staten Island's "unique" situation, which lacks sidewalks along many busy roads and has fewer transportation options than other boroughs should be considered in the DOE's decision to issue hazard variances, agreed many residents and elected officials in attendance at the press conference.

"This is the type of issue that should boil everyone's blood," said Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn). "You can't put a price on the safety of children."

With many empty buses and a variety of hazardous conditions on the Island, electeds are hoping that the proposal submitted to the chancellor of the DOE will allow them to work together to create a "common sense" policy that will get students to school safely.

"This is about more than empty seats, and let's cut to the chase, it's about empty heads," said Assemblyman Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore). "I'm sick and tired of having to stand with my colleagues and having to rally for common sense things that should be a no-brainer, things that taxpayers deserve."

If the DOE chooses to ignore the submitted proposal, Staten Island's state legislators may go around it, as two bills are going to be considered when the legislature is called back in session, said Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island).

A bill currently in the Assembly would return full yellow bus service to seventh and eighth graders, and the other will allow school principals to survey buses with empty seats and put kids in those seats who have a precarious journey to school.