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A problem area for the district in recent years, Haverhill Public Schools administrators are planning how best to mitigate bus delays as the first day of school fast approaches.
Superintendent Margaret Marotta said to School Committee members last week, “I guess we could call this expectation management. Anybody who’s trying to get across Haverhill lately in their car knows how difficult the traffic and the construction can be. We always have some struggles with transportation.”
Committee Vice Chair Paul A. Magliocchetti brought up construction on the horizon for Haverhill.
“The project that really has me concerned is the Procopio project on the former Skateland, going out onto South Main Street and Laurel Avenue—and the closure of the Basiliere Bridge. I think all of this is happening, if I’m not wrong, around the spring of 2025, so … we need to be proactive and stay ahead of this.”
Developer Procopio predicts “The Beck,” a 290-unit residential and retail complex on Railroad Avenue, will be done by spring of 2025. State transportation department officials and consultants say the Basiliere Bridge rebuild will begin in late 2025 or early 2026.
Particularly in the first few weeks of school, Supervisor of Transportation Elizabeth Cannata said delays can occur as drivers work out the “kinks” of their routes. She said they will be given time to conduct dry runs.
Member Jill Story did not hold back in expressing her frustration with the system.
“I’ve had kids on the buses for the last 14 years, and we’ve had an issue with the buses every one of them… For parents, the transportation, the bus, shouldn’t be the biggest stress with their kid returning to school and unfortunately, a lot of times, it is.”
A few years back, she said one of her daughters was put on the wrong bus her first week of kindergarten. Parents in her neighborhood told her last year their kids were more than half an hour late because of bus delays. “To me, that’s more than just, working out the kinks, that’s like a major failure, that I would love for us to be able to avoid.”
Cannata responded,“I know there were some issues last school year with NRT buses. So, NRT does all of our big buses, and they were short staffed, and there were quite a few routes that, every single day, they were short [on] drivers, and—they call it doubled up—they doubled up routes at the beginning of the year. I’m hoping that they have the staff to do it.”
She added she’s in constant contact with the bus company. Routes will be posted Aug. 19.