‘I’m just concerned’: Parents frustrated over lack of school buses for 150 Stoughton students

STOUGHTON, Mass. — Parents in Stoughton are fired up after about 150 students who signed up for a bus this year were denied a seat.

Many parents voiced their concerns during a virtual meeting Monday night, as they scrambled to figure out how to get their kids to and from school in just a couple of weeks.

“I’m a single mom, so I have no option of picking him up, I don’t work from home, I have no other choice but to have him take the bus,” said Jamie Brough, a mother of a 6th grader in Stoughton.

School district leaders say the buses are at capacity for a few reasons.

One is the district is down a bus from last year, and the demand for them went up about 12% this year.

“Since the announcement last week, we’ve reviewed all transportation requests one by one,” said Joseph Baeta, Superintendent of Stoughton Public Schools. “We have found a few discrepancies that will lead to some of you families receiving transportation for next year.”

Superintendent Baeta hosted the virtual meeting Monday night to answer questions about this school bus shortage.

He says he’s already reviewing at least 30 cases where students may end up getting a seat after all.

“Please know the staff working behind the scenes in all of this are here to address these issues, they do care and they are finding solutions and doing everything they can,” said Baeta.

Most parents in the virtual meeting said they simply couldn’t make it home from work in time to pick up their kids.

“I’m just concerned because having her walk anywhere I mean that’s a liability for everybody and I’m also too a working mom,” said Scharliea Daroza, a mother in Stoughton.

“I can drop them off in the morning, but I can’t pick them up because I work 12-hour shifts,” said Uju Ode, another parent who works in healthcare.

Some families were frustrated to learn the school district is providing transportation to children living in hotels or shelters while many longtime residents can’t get a seat on the bus.

But Superintendent Baeta says those two buses are funded by the state and not part of the school district’s operational budget.

“It is inaccurate to suggest that these children receiving busing is the reason yours did not. If we were not receiving the funding from the state for the students living in hotels/shelters, we would not be able to have these two additional buses,” said Baeta in a letter to families last week.

The superintendent says the school committee will now be looking over its transportation policy to see what may need to be changed for next year, so that all students who really need to take the bus, who may live far from school, will be able to get that seat.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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