East End school district staffers feel strike's effects
The Long Island Rail Road strike is significantly impacting staffers in at least one Long Island school district.
About 50 East Hampton school district staffers who usually ride the railroad’s South Fork Commuter Connection had to find another way to get to work Monday.
Thirty-three rode a district shuttle bus with pickups at the Westhampton and Hampton Bays LIRR stations that Superintendent Adam Fine said the district will provide for the duration of the strike.
The Commuter Connection, which combines LIRR trains with shuttle bus connections, runs from Speonk to Montauk and was created in 2019 to ease East End traffic by taking cars off the roads. East Hampton school staffers rode the buses directly to work.
Fine said in a phone interview that the Connection was “massive for recruitment” of teachers and other district staffers, given heavy summer traffic and high local real estate costs that force many younger staffers to commute to the East End from elsewhere on the Island.
District officials started planning their shuttle service two weeks ago, he said. The cost is minimal because the district owns the bus.
Staffers from other East End districts including Montauk, Bridgehampton and Amagansett also use the Connection, Fine said.
Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.
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