Update- I believe in light of the BOE meeting, the approach would be better to petition the district to install bus tracking apps for parents. This is the most feasible option.

Additionally, I will say, I hope that students with IEPs are able to have bus aides on their buses if their IEP states this. Since I have been made aware that it is very hard to find bus aides in our community.

In response to so many comments and people reaching out to me in the last couple of weeks, I have decided to create a petition in hopes of finding proactive solutions to the bus problems in our wonderful town of Kinnelon.  Primarily, this petition is in support of establishing bus aides on- at least- the elementary school level buses.  In addition, I would like to petition the Board of Education to install bus tracking apps on our buses, so that we may track the location on our phones.  This would have been invaluable when my daughter was lost on her bus by herself with the driver on her first day of first grade.

My daughter was lost on the school bus, by herself with the bus driver for about thirty minutes.  Upon reviewing the footage, she did return to Kiel school, but for some reason, there was a disconnect between the school’s communication with my family and with First Student, and she was brought back into Smokerise when we live on the other side of town.  The bus driver was lost and stopped a few times throughout the trip in Smokerise, and at one point, opened the door and got up to speak with another man.  She was then transported through Smokerise, out the Northgate, and down route 23, and finally arrived home at 3:00pm.  Buses were boarded and operated on a half day schedule that day.  My daughter was not wearing a seatbelt during this time, which could have been avoided with a bus aide to remind her to put on her seatbelt after she had changed seats while the bus was still moving, so that the driver could hear her better.  This experience has provoked many questions, not only from me and my family, but also other parents in our community.

In addition, I have received countless stories and complaints from parents about the bus problems in this town via one post on social media. Parents have been reaching out specifically to me instead of transportation. For instance, bus aides was a topic of conversation, per the Board Minutes in 2020, after two female were molested on a school bus, allegedly on school premises.   The driver was incarcerated, yet we still have the same bus company, and no bus aides.

Last year, Kindergarten students were choked on a bus by another student.  This could have also been minimized with a trained aide on that bus.

This year, students are standing on bus rides, which is not only violating laws, but also extremely unsafe.  In addition, middle and high schoolers are getting into fights on the buses.

While it is true, a trained bus aide would not relinquish every problem, they would provide help to the bus driver to help avoid a lot of these issues.  Multiple districts in the area have job postings on their websites, looking for part time bus aides..  Jefferson, Oakland, Parsippany, Denville, Jefferson, Mendham Township, to name a few.

As a community, we pour money into this school system with fundraisers, KESHA, etc.  I have never seen a community that has been more involved in school spirit and school functions.  The support that this district has is invaluable.  Having been blessed to work in this district, and knowing some of the amazing educators this town has in it, I have so many connections to this amazing community.

My goal here is to provide an olive branch between the community and the educators that are now in the administration of these schools. I want to call on them and remind them why they got into this profession. Not for the money or the politics but for the betterment of our future.

I have been doing extensive research on the topic of busing in our town within the last month. As I have done so, I realized that Kinnelon really needs our help. In 2016, we were ranked #3 in the Top High Schools of NJ. Now, we are #26.

It doesn’t start at the top, with admin.  It starts here, with us.  It starts with you and me.  It starts with putting this small fire out, a fire that feels big to us all. But strength is better in numbers. It starts with a small ripple of change. Let's be the change, together as a community.

Works Cited

Kinnelon School District - U.S. News Education. USA News. (2026). https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/new-jersey/districts/kinnelon-school-district-107537

Schlager, K. (2016, September 1). Chatham Reigns as the Top High School in NJ. New Jersey Monthly. https://njmonthly.com/articles/news/top-high-schools-2016/