No new Smithtown vote on school busing

The Smithtown school board has rejected petitions calling for a new vote on the district's plan to reduce bus transportation for hundreds of public and private school students.

The 4-2 vote at a meeting Monday night means that a referendum to restore the district's current busing policy will not take place during the summer, said school board president Robert Rossi.

About 1,500 parents signed petitions asking for a new election after Smithtown voters last month approved a referendum lengthening by a half-mile the distances that students must live from school to receive bus transportation. The proposition also reduced by five miles -- from 20 miles to 15 -- the maximum distance the district will provide buses to private and parochial students.

District officials have said it would save $800,000 per year in costs.

The proposition passed by more than 800 votes out of 7,000 cast.

Rossi said the petitions were rejected because the identical referendum cannot be offered for a second vote.

"I don't feel that if people are unhappy with the vote that you automatically start making adjustments," he said. "That's not the way things work in this country."

He added state law requires a 60-day notice of a referendum, leaving little time to vote before school reopens in September. "There was no time for the board to even discuss what it was they were going to put on the ballot," Rossi said.

Tom McCormick, of St. James, who said his two stepchildren will have to walk to Saints Philip and James School in September, called the board's vote "insane."

"I don't believe they really understand what is really at stake here. This isn't about money, this is about people's lives," McCormick said. "I don't believe they heard the cry of [the] people."

"Why don't we vote again?" he said. "I suspect that people will vote for busing."

Though the school board rejected the petitions, the board could consider putting a new busing referendum on the ballot after the 2011-12 school year begins, said board member Gladys Waldron. She and board member Scott Martella voted to accept the petitions.

Waldron said the addition of two new board members next month might swing the board in favor of a new busing vote.

"I do believe that we have to take another look at it," Waldron said. "I do believe the new board would be supportive and have a new vote."

Rossi and Waldron said the district would monitor safety in areas where students have lost busing.