Awesome!... We were not able to attend tonight but would like to extend a gracious Thank You to: Mayor Pavlini, Deputy Mayor Gaziano, Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Malay~The Township Committee, Susan McGowan for supporting Homestead Village and to all who stood their ground for the safety of our fellow neighbors. A big shout out to the wonderful friends and neighbors of Homestead!
Fran Stanley
Jeff Sankus
Winding Lane

I do not live in Homestead village, but sending buses through that neighborhood is just ridiculous. Those small, narrow streets filled with pedestrians is an accident waiting to happen. Letting some amount of passenger cars drop their kids at Cedar Hill has always been a safe, if not perfect, solution. Howlett's idea of reversing it by having the buses go through there, but not passengers cars, is such a bad idea that it should be obvious to anyone. It won't reduce traffic out front if you now put all those cars at the main entrance. What is he thinking??

The twp. committee should work together with the school board rather then criticize. We have to drop our child off at the HS before 7am. and still the HS parking lot is dangerous. You have buses, students, parents all using the same entrance. Numerous times I've seen students nearly run down by a bus and I was almost in an accident with an impatient bus driver. I don't agree with buses being re-routed, but there should be no reason why parents can not drop their students off at Cedar Hill School. Peachtree Rd. is a public road and if you are obeying the speed limit their should be no reason you should be stopped from driving through that neighborhood.

What a joy to be stopped this morning and asked to not drop my daughter off. No let me rephase that, I was sitting with my window open waiting for Principal Howlett to come talk with me. Instead he chased down my daughter. I pulled back around to explain that I live on Peachtree Road. His response, "just make sure you tell that to the police." Buses allowed, me in my own neighborhood - not so much.

Thank you Township Committee!

We have always dropped off our kids at cedar hill. Now Howlett does not want us to drop off our kids like we used to AFTER buses are not allowed anymore? This is quite funny in logic.

What suggestions did the Town Council offer last night? Can the buses use the municipal lot?

I would imagine that the school can also "respectfully" decline their recommendation - so now what?

How exactly is it illegal for parents of HS students to drop their kids off at cedar hill so that they can wallk across to the HS? It's public property ..... and it's been going on for a long time.

I don't think it is illegal - I think it was the BOE's response to the neighborhood's concern about parents driving too fast through the roads. They want to encourage ALL parents to drop the students off at Ridge HS.

Unfortunately I think the issue is that the drivers are not obeying the speed limit nor the stop signs and, in some cases, not stopping for the William Annin bus picking up students in the neighborhood. What was once a manageable amount of traffic has become 60-100 cars speeding, running stop signs, and making the area unsafe for students who are walking to class. Personally, I think the situation prior to the onslaught of bus traffic was fine. The tide turned and the police officers patrolling the neighborhood and the administration overseeing the situation felt the same. The drop off procedure needs to be completely reworked and I urge the BOE to take advantage of the TC's offer to utilize the engineering knowledge to come up with a structured, organized process. Even without the buses, the cars weaving in and out of traffic, the complete lack of authority onsite managing the process and the total absence of a structured drop off procedure create an unsafe environment for anyone trying to get to the school. That needs to be changed so that, as the population of Ridge grows, the drop off remains a safe and manageable process.

Before the Bus Fiasco, has anyone here ever heard about this neighborhood overrun by cars? Of course not. Basically it is a stupid idea followed by an overreaction.

N, having staggered start times at Ridge has been discussed before. Thoughts, anyone?

The school day actually starts before 8. (I think it's 7:30.) That allows maximum utilization of the school facilities. (You'd need more rooms if you started later.) You could stagger starting times but then you'd have to stagger ending times and that would wreak havoc on extra-curricular activities and sports. I don't think there's any gold in the thar hills, but I could be wrong.

Things must be going very well if bus traffic is the hot topic.

Seems like they could do a lot by just managing the traffic at the high school. The video shown by Frank Howlett did not show much of an effort to control the traffic flow.

It wasn’t a good situation, but the school administration has just made it worse.

Let's face it, with Howlett in charge this problem will never be resolved. Totally incompetent administrator.

Now back to the topic on hand - the only thing this experiment has done is hopefully forced the issue that we all must face.

We have to build an additional way in and out of the high school - down to Maple, over to Collyer, ANYWHERE, but we spent millions on a PAC, a gymnasium and classrooms, it's time to build another entrance!

I think we need to explore using the Municipal Building for buses OR for parent drop off - when I was on the BOE, we spoke with the Township Committee (this was many years ago) about having parent drop-off behind Town Hall. There was even discussion about building a path from the Town Hall to RHS so students wouldn't have to walk through wet grass in the morning. In our discussions, we determined this would work because drop-off in the morning is well before employees start arriving, and pick-up is before they leave in the evening. The timing would work well. There was an concern about whether the police would have the open access in and out that they need, and an idea proposed that perhaps an new access to Collier Road could be developed for the police.

At that time, the BOE discussed with the Township Committee the idea of a new access road in and out of RHS - it would have cost MILLIONS of dollars, and would have gone down the back, destroying the beautiful path from the school to the Community Center (which many residents enjoy). The Townshop Committee was not interested in funding this road, and the BOE couldn't possibly have come up with millions of dollars after having just passed a referendum to pay for school expansion for required educational facilities. So the matter dropped.

This is not just a school district problem. It's a community issue, and requires a community solution.

What do other high schools (some much larger than us) do?

What about all of the people who get stuck in Ridge traffice in the morning while going to work?

If the issue is too much traffic on S. Finley, and now too much traffic in Homestead Village, why in the world would we move that traffic to the egress from our police station? The police have said that driveway needs to be kept clear for emergency response, and with all due respect, that should end that discussion. Seems to me there's plenty of roadway at the high school, but someone up there needs to redesign and then supervise the traffic flow, and people just need to be patient, give themselves plenty of time, and obey the traffic laws. There's an inordinate amount of whining going on about this "problem".

First to admit I'm not a traffic engineer, nor am I police officer. Just seems to me the BOE would hire an expert, and also heed what the police have to say, before people start rallying for new multi-million dollar roadways. I am, however, very good at obeying the speed limits, yielding to pedestrians, budgeting time for traffic, and singing along with the radio so that I don't succumb to road rage, things that cost nothing and would also go a long way to solving this problem. Serenity now.

I think it's worthwhile hearing all ideas at this point. A reader was talking with me today about having seniors being allowed to take some of their "core" courses -- ie. English 101 -- at a county college. Being done elsewhere...reduces school population, and maybe can be scheduled to remove some morning drivers.

@Laura. I agree with you. Mr. Howlett claims they have exhausted all options but I haven't seen a structured drop off at the high school like the ones we have at the elementary and middle schools. It's a free-for-all. I would like to see what the district has tried and why it hasn't worked. The TC offered the use of an engineer to the BOE. I think it's time they tried something.

Too many parents are driving their kids to school between 7:00 and 7:40 a.m. either because they want their children to sleep an extra 20 minutes (so the precious babes don't use the buses), or, they don't get free busing and have to pay $690 per student, which is an outrageous amount.

What is ridiculous is a group of people "creating hazards" on purpose. Doubled parked cars, dog walkers crossing the street in front of the buses and additional traffic a few days after the start of alternate High School drop off. The streets are not narrow and filled with pedestrians. "An accident waiting to happen"? The first day of the alternate route there was absolutely no problems. A few days later, created hazards by individuals who were trying to endanger the safety and welfare of the students and bus drivers. Why is it safe to bring the Cedar Hill Students through Homestead Village but not safe to bring in the High School Students?

Wake up people!!!! Buses have been driving through "Homestead Village" dropping kids off at Cedar Hill School for almost 50 years! I rode the bus to Cedar Hill in the seventies -it's nothing new!!!