Let me start this week with TRANSPORTATION. No topic has been more controversial than bus transportation, both yellow bus and special education.
The yellow bus service is provided by a third party vendor and the drivers are not SPS employees and the buses are not property of SPS. Yellow bus transportation was provided until last winter by charging families a fee to ride. The School Committee and previous administration took a serious look at the family fee and eliminated the fee and moved 100% of the line-item cost into the operational budget. This was a great decision for families. To that end, the School Committee and administration at that time decided to implement for the current year a process that included meeting a deadline via a “signing up” process. This was done in order to be as equitable as possible. Unfortunately, deadlines were not met by families which caused some students to not get a seat. We continue to attempt to address this issue daily.
Lastly, we will be publishing this process in the spring of 2024 for the fall of 2024 ridership.
Special education transportation is a totally different process and issue. First, the decision to provide special education transportation is made by the IEP Team which consists of parents, educators, and even advocates. This decision is based on many factors.
As a district we utilize third party vendors for special education transportation. This has not been easy as both the availability of vans and mini buses, as well as finding drivers are both very difficult. We continue to look at various options to try to address this topic as well.
Please continue to work with us as we find solutions to a very difficult issue.
The Stoughton Public Schools will be holding the Annual Title 1 Family Orientation Meeting on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 3:15pm at the Wilkins School (1322 Central St.). Please click here for more information. This meeting is open to all members of the Stoughton Public Schools community and Stoughton residents.
Another friendly reminder that with the school year underway, we want to make sure we have accurate and updated emergency contact information and health information for your child. Please log into your PowerSchool Parent Portal account, click on the forms link in the left navigation menu and update any information that is not accurate in the two forms - Current Student Information/Emergency Form and Current Student Health Information. When you have updated the information, please click on submit at the bottom of each of the forms. If your child's information is accurate, please click on submit at the bottom of each form to indicate that you have reviewed the data and it is accurate.