Transportation has been a topic of discussion among Monroe Township Public Schools and its community.
Ahead of the 2026-27 school year, the school district announced a change to bus transportation that would cut a portion of the bus pick-up and drop-off stops. In August, parents, families and community members expressed concerns with the cuts. One of the biggest concerns was student safety.
After receiving feedback, Superintendent Brian McBride and the board of education (BOE) said they discussed the cuts and changes in the executive session before the August 20 meeting. In response to parent in the public comment portion at the start of the meeting, McBride said he went out to the areas where the proposed transportation cuts were made to see what the walking paths would be like for students who would no longer have bus routes available to them, which would be about a mile to two mile walk in areas that had safety concerns, such as being unlit early in the morning and in the evening and being in a kind of “desolate” area.
“Our first priority is student safety, and then all the other areas come into play,” he said, nothing that families in developments and neighborhoods in town within reevaluated areas would receive notice about their bussing being restored.
Currently in the district, there are more than 400 daily bus runs, McBride said in the September 17 Monroe Township Board of Education (BOE) meeting.
The BOE meeting occurred just over two weeks after the first day of school on September 1. In the meeting, the board and superintendent addressed another situation of bus transportation and safety.
On the afternoon of September 3, the third day of school, a bus taking students home from Oak Knoll Elementary School was part of a motor vehicle accident. The accident occurred on the 700 block of North Tuckahoe Road and involved multiple vehicles.
According to a media release from the Monroe Township Police Department (MTPD) posted just before 9 p.m. that night, five vehicles were involved, two of which being commercial dump trucks.
MTPD reported that one of the dump trucks driving on North Tuckahoe Road failed to stop for traffic stopped for the school bus, which ultimately started a chain reaction. This dump truck rear-ended a passenger vehicle with an adult woman and three minors, which was then pushed into another vehicle with one adult woman. This collision then hit the rear of the Oak Knoll school bus, which was occupied with nine students and two adults. Lastly, the force from the collision caused the bus to hit the rear of the second dump truck.
All nine students and two adults on the bus faced were sent to Jefferson Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Additionally, the three minors in the first vehicle were sent to the hospital; MTPD reported that one of the minors “became trapped in the rear seat of the passenger vehicle” and they had to be extricated by emergency response personnel from the fire department.
An update posted by the school district later that evening said the parents of the children on the bus were immediately notified of the incident. It also said that all the students and adults involved were safe and healthy. MTPD’s media release reported that everyone sent to the hospital were either released or remains in stable condition without life-threatening injuries.
McBride thanked the MTPD, all the first responders, transportation department, the bus driver, the staff at Jefferson Hospital, the administration from Oak Knoll and the people in the area of the accident for their help and assistance.
“There were nine youngsters taken to the hospital that day; thankfully, they were okay. There were some other individuals in some of the other vehicles that were injured pretty seriously, and our hearts and prayers went out to (them),” McBride said at the BOE meeting.
“We’ve learned a lot from (the accident). Needless to say, it took a community to come together to make sure that everybody was taken care of,” he continued.
Since, the school district has released safety guides and checklists for families and students to utilize during school transportation.
On September 11, a week and a day after the incident, the district shared a “Safety First: Your Child’s School Travel Checklist,” which outlines important things for walkers, bike riders and bus riders to look out for so Monroe Township’s “students can travel safely each day.”
Additionally, more information on bus safety and rules are available online at www.monroetwp.k12.nj.us/transportation.
