If you are a Newton Resident, please reach out to the School Committee directly at schoolcommittee@newton.k12.ma.us to voice your concern over this proposal and include your contact information (name, address, School, grades of children, etc).  If you can provide legal support for this cause, please comment below.

The Newton School Committee is considering the elimination of bus service for private school students beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.  This decision would impact 151 students (102 who attend Solomon Schecter Day, 46 who attend Mount Alvernia Academy, Newton Country Day & Jackson Walnut Park, and 2 who attend Fessenden). The Newton School committee is contemplating these changes in response to broader complaints about bus overcrowding as well as budget constraints. 

The private school bus service not only provides a safe, reliable, and efficient means of transportation for children within the city of Newton, but also provides immense environmental benefits to our community by reducing traffic congestion during peak commute hours and reducing emissions from excess cars on the road. We urge the committee to consider these benefits in light of the cost of the program. 

Currently, Newton operates 34 buses, with two buses designated for private school students at a cost of $240k per the 2025 budget.  The total budget for Newton’s school bus transportation is $4.2M (inclusive of the 2 private school busses).  Roughly ~$975k of that cost is offset by bus pass sales. Newton provides bus service for both public and private school students well beyond what is required by law (which is only free transportation for K-6 students who live >2 miles from their school).  NPS offers middle + high school transportation for a $400 fee and allows elementary students who live <2miles from school to utilize the bus for a $400 fee.  The choice to offer service beyond what is required by law costs the city ~$2.1M.

The committee is proposing to eliminate the two private school buses and re-allocate them to the public school routes.  This will not save Newton money, but the committee argues that it will improve the utilization and timeliness for public school users. 

This approach is unlikely to yield the anticipated improvements in efficiency and timeliness for public school users given the differing schedules of private and public schools. Newton offers 5 private school routes in the morning and 8 private school routes in the afternoon. In the morning, these routes begin at 6:40 AM and conclude by 7:45 AM, well before most public elementary and high school bus routes commence (typically between 7:45 and 8:30 AM). In the afternoon, most private school routes begin at 2:45PM (before most public elementary school dismissals) or at 4:30pm (after public elementary and high school dismissals).  Several buses serve both public and private schools over the course of the day, such as bus AB which serves Schecter (7:45 dropoff), Angier (8:10 dropoff), and Newton South (8:50 dropoff) in the morning as well as MAA (2:45 departure), Schecter (3:00 departure) and Newton North (6:45 departure) in the afternoon.  Only one bus appears to exclusively serve primarily private school routes, though even that bus also serves a Memorial Spaulding AM route.

In April, the committee estimated that two additional buses are needed for public school students and one for private school students to meet current demand.  Each new bus costs approximately $118k, covering expenses such as the bus itself, driver wages, insurance, and fuel.

We strongly urge the committee to explore alternative cost-saving measures to facilitate the purchase of additional buses rather than eliminating private school bus service. Some options include:

1. Enhanced Bus Pass Enforcement: Currently, many students ride the bus without a valid bus pass, which contributes to overcrowding and negatively impacts bus pass revenue. Stricter bus pass checks would ease overcrowding and ensure students using the buses are either eligible for free transportation or have paid a fee for the service.
2. Parking Buses on School Property: Allowing buses to park on school grounds would reduce daily rental costs.
3. Increasing the Bus Pass Fees: Raising the bus pass fee from $400 to $500 would generate approximately $240,000, potentially covering the costs of adding two additional buses or fully funding the existing private school routes
4. Implementing fees for private school students. Rather than a wholesale withdrawal of service, the committee could consider implementing a $400-500 fee for all private school families that do not currently pay a fee.  This approach would yield ~$50-60k additional revenue.

We also urge the school committee to carefully evaluate the legality of its proposal to remove bus service for private school students.  Massachusetts state law (Chapter 76, Section 1) clearly states that “pupils who attend approved private schools of elementary and high school grades shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as to transportation to and from school as are provided by law for pupils of public schools and shall not be denied such transportation because their attendance is in a school which is conducted under religious auspices or includes religious instruction in its curriculum. Each school committee shall provide transportation for any pupil attending such an approved private school within the boundaries of the school district, provided, however, that the distance between said pupil's residence and the private school said pupil attends exceeds two miles or such other minimum distance as may be established by the school committee for transportation of public school students. Any school committee which is required by law to transport any pupil attending an approved private school beyond the boundaries of the school district shall not be required to do so further than the distance from the residence of such pupil to the public school he is entitled to attend.” (https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXII/Chapter76/section1

We argue that the affected schools (MAA, NCDS, JWP, Schecter and Fessenden) are within the boundaries of the Newton Public School district and therefore protected under this law (Chapter 76, Section 1). Furthermore, we believe that NPS Counsel is misinterpreting the Supreme Judicial Court’s 1982 decision in Attorney General v. School Committee of Essex, which applies to the scope of a private student’s entitlement to transportation if the private school is outside of the boundaries of the school district (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2159008/attorney-general-v-school-committee-of-essex/ Essex students in that case were assigned to a public school in neighboring town Gloucester (since there was no public high school in Essex at the time) and the ruling granted transportation rights to students who attended private schools in neighboring towns as long as the out of district boundary private school was closer than the assigned public school in Gloucester.  This is not applicable to the situation in Newton, where the private schools impacted by the proposal are within the Newton Public School district boundaries.   We urge the Newton School Committee to recognize the distinction between ward boundaries and school district boundaries. 

It is our understanding that Newton City Solicitor Daniel Funk sought to give clarity to the Newton School Committee on similar proposal to remove private school busses in September 2009. The Newton School Committee’s questions were addressed at that time by Deborah M Comfort, Associate General Counsel for Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in a letter of 9/18/2009, clarifying the requirements for Newton to provide transportation services for private school students residing within the district and attending a private school within the city equivalent to that afforded to Newton public school students. 

A review of that letter makes it quite clear that the school committee cannot elect to discontinue private school transportation and remain compliant with MGL c. 76, section 1.  Even if a school committee does not accept the Chapter 663 amendment of MGL c. 76, section 1 of 1983, the school committee is still obligated to provide transportation to private school students as required under MGL c. 76, section 1 (prior to the enactment of chapter 663).  The letter states quite clearly that “Private school students who are of compulsory school age have the same rights to transportation as public school students in the school district.”

We also wish to address the interpretation by NPS Counsel that, since NPS does not provide transportation to students attending NPS schools outside of their zoned areas, it is not required to provide transportation for private school students. 

• First, we urge the Newton School committee to reconsider its practice of denying out of zone public school students transportation and to consider the actions discussed above to raise revenue to provide transportation to those public school students, especially those attending a school >2miles from their residence.
• Second, we believe NPS Counsel’s interpretation is overly narrow and fails to recognize the broader intent of Massachusetts General Law (MGL) Chapter 76, Section 1.  The purpose of this law is to ensure that all students within a school district, regardless of whether they attend public or private schools, have access to safe and reliable transportation and to reduce congestion within the district. Statute 1950, c. 400, specifically mandates transportation to private school pupils "in order to protect children from the hazards of traffic and promote their safety, cities and towns.”  On its face, this statute is intended to benefit both children and the community as a whole.  It is far better to transport 150 students within Newton by bus instead of 150+ additional cars per day each morning and each afternoon individually transporting their children to their respective schools. 
• Third, parents who choose to send their children to an out of zone public school within Newton are not seeking a different curriculum at that out of zone school.   They often make the choice out of a matter or convenience based on where parents work, because of a move within Newton, or change in school boundaries so children can stay with their friends. We argue that religious schools offer a faith based curriculum that is not offered at the child’s local neighborhood school.  Five of the six schools impacted by this proposal are faith based schools.
• Fourth, parents who send their children to an out of zone public school are notified on the school transfer form (before they make the decision) that they will not be provided transportation to that out of zone school. By contrast, parents of Newton private and religious school children made the choice to send their child a to private or religious school within Newton vs a private or religious school outside the city of Newton or vs their local neighborhood school under the assumption that transportation would be provided by the city (as it has been for 50+ years.)

Finally, Newton families who choose to send their children to private schools within Newton are still very much members of the Newton community and contribute to Newton taxes.  Their choice is lessening the financial burden on the Newton Public Schools by enrolling their children outside NPS. If just one third of the children impacted by this proposal are forced to transfer back to NPS from their private school due to lack of transportation, it will cause a much greater burden on the School Committee Budget than maintaining the service (assuming an average cost of $5k/student in line with the reimbursement rate of the School Choice program).

We implore the school committee to leave the current practice of providing transportation for nonpublic school students residing within the city of Newton to their nonpublic school within the city of Newton as is and to consider other options to enhance the service for all students.

Please see documents below for more info.

Preview attachment Private School Memos and DESE 2009 Advisory.pdf

   

 

 

 

Private School Memos and DESE 2009 Advisory.pdf 1022 KB    

Preview attachment Private School Transportation Discussion Memo 04-04-24.pdf

   

 

 

 

Private School Transportation Discussion Memo 04-04-24.pdf 266 KB

Preview attachment DESE letter09-18-09.pdf    

 

 

 

DESE letter09-18-09.pdf 612 KB