HEADLINES
£ A vehicle is seen in a sinkhole as school bus driver Debbie Baker- Star heads to pick up stranded people following Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 31, 2012, in Seaside Heights, N.J. Sandy caused multiple fatalities, halted mass transit and cut power to more than six million homes and businesses.
CLEAN UP POST SANDY, HARD-HIT NEWYORK AND NEW JERSEY CALL FOR PROMPT AID
WRITTEN BY MICHELLE FISHER
storm Sandy, officials in New York and New Jersey are trying to get back on track while awaiting much-needed federal aid. Sandy caused about $62 billion in damage and other losses nationwide, with the vast majority of it in New York and New Jersey. New York State is seeking nearly $42 billion in federal aid, according to the New York State Division of the Budget, including $342 million to repair its public schools. New York City schools re- quire the bulk of the funds ($300 million), followed by Nassau County ($40 million), as shown in the Recovery Needs Summary on the governor’s website. New Jersey Gov. Chris
A
s normalcy starts to return two months after Super-
Christie stated that costs for rebuilding damaged properties, infrastructure and shorelines would total nearly $37 billion. Soon after, he and New York Gov. Cuomo joined forces to call attention to their states’ financial plight since sustaining significant damage to homes, schools, businesses and infrastructure. “We need the full fund-
ing for our aid to arrive, hopefully before the end of the year,” they said in a joint statement last month. “We will require more aid in the future, but we need this full commitment now.”
21 DISTRICTS ‘WORST HIT’
Public schools are also
picking up the pieces as they calculate the cost to repair buildings, replace lost equipment or vehicles and cover related costs, such as
20 School Transportation News January 2013
transportation for students attending temporarily relo- cated schools. New York City Depart- ment of Education spokes- woman Marge Feinberg told STN the department continues to review all related costs to pupil trans- portation following Sandy. After Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the city had requested more than $15 billion in federal aid, Feinberg confirmed the New York City DOE would need a portion of that to bolster its coffers. “Tere were costs associ- ated with hiring coach buses to serve as shuttle buses for students in relocated schools, and we are request- ing about $3 million in reimbursement,” she said. Te DOE operates its
own school buses under contract with bus companies. Five New York City
schools were among those hit hardest, according to a web page published by the American Association of School Administrators on the 21 worst-hit schools and districts. Nineteen of them lie in coastal areas from Middle Township, N.J., in the south to Long Island, N.Y., farther north. Te New York Associa-
tion of Pupil Transportation reported that New York City and Long Island schools experienced the largest bus shortages after Sandy swamped bus yards, damag- ing and destroying hundreds of buses in some areas. NYAPT Executive Di-
rector Peter Mannella said the association has been net- working with school districts to determine needs, and schools are working together to reinstate transportation. Tough more than two
million students in New York rely on the yellow bus, a large number of New York
City students take public transit to and from school every day. Te Metropolitan Transit
Authority (MTA) estimated damage at $5.02 billion and infrastructure and operating losses to be $4.75 billion and $268 million, respec- tively, according to the proposed 2013 budget. Te standard reimbursement by FEMA is 75 percent of approved losses. “[U]nless FEMA in-
creases its reimbursement percentage, MTA could be exposed to approximately $950 million based upon the current loss estimate,” the report stated.
MAKING UP MISSED DAYS
Lost school days are another casualty of Sandy. New York City officials announced that students were losing most of their weeklong winter break (three out of five days). Affected districts in New Jersey will make up lost days by extending the school year, cutting professional development days and eliminating days off for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and President’s holidays. STN surveyed its reader- ship about Sandy’s impact on school district transpor- tation services, zeroing in on 547 transportation directors in seven states: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, West Virgin- ia, Delaware and Maryland. Of the 31 respondents, 28
said they experienced school closures and/or delays, with 16 reporting closures of one week or less. Only five directors dealt with school relocation, and four said transportation was provided to those students. None of the respondents reported losing buses or equipment due to the storm. l
AP PHOTO/JULIO CORTEZ
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