School Officials to Form Task Force on Ridge Traffic

President Susan Carlsson said Tuesday night school officials are moving to establish a task force on handling traffic before the board's next scheduled meeting on March 12.

Carlsson said schools superintendent Valerie Goger is in charge of setting up the task force, which she said she hopes will include a number of parent and resident representatives, including two from the Homestead Village neighborhood.

Residents of the neighborhood have been adamantly protesting a decision by school district's administration that on Feb. 1 started the routing of Ridge buses to the which has access to the rear of the high school.

The residents say the increased bus traffic—along with additional cars which since have discovered the alternate route to the high school—is creating a safety hazard along narrow roads in the area, including near-accidents with students waiting for other buses or walking to school.

Carlsson's remarks came after Tuesday's meeting, at which the governing body repeated a Feb. 14 vote to "respectfully" recommend that the school board cease the "experiment" of routing buses to Ridge to the which has access to the rear of the high school.

Carlsson said after the meeting that the Township Committee and school board are completely different entities, with separate decision-making processes.

Carlsson said the proposed make-up of the task force also would include PTO representatives from the high school and Cedar Hill school, as well as Ridge Principal Frank Howlett and Nick Markarian, now schools business administrator and,

As envisioned, the task force would not include representatives from the school board or Township Committee, she said. At this point, she said, "We can take a step back and let other people do the work."

Carlsson added that on Tuesday afternoon, she had sent an email to township officials, asking that the township engineer and a police representative serve on the task force.

Deputy Mayor Carolyn Gaziano, leading Tuesday night's meeting, said township officials are still considering that request.

The resolution approved by the Township Committee on Feb. 14 offered the services of the municipal engineer to help the school district work out a traffic solution at the high school.

Timko reported at Tuesday's Township Committee meeting that he had last week met with Markarian to review traffic flow at the high school.

Timko said that after reviewing some possible scenarios, he concluded there was no way to substantially change traffic circulation at the high school campus without construction. He said that some "small construction" projects had been discussed, such as finding a place to park school buses on the property.

Timko said he advised that hiring a traffic consultant would be a good first step for the school district.