Ridgewood Schools Take the Short Bus: $1,595 Fee and New Fleet Spark Outrage at BOE Meeting
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Parents in Ridgewood are reeling following a contentious Board of Education (BOE) meeting Monday night, where officials unveiled a massive overhaul of the district’s transportation system. Between a staggering new $1,595 “subscription” fee and a controversial plan to purchase a private bus fleet, the “busing mess” in Ridgewood has officially reached a boiling point.
The discussion, which dominated the final 15 minutes of the meeting, revealed a district struggling to balance a budget hit by a $2.1 million spike in healthcare costs while trying to manage the fallout of ending courtesy busing.
The $1,595 Pay-to-Ride Plan
For families who lost “courtesy busing” due to recent cuts, the price to get back on the bus is steep. The Board approved the Subscription Busing Program for the 2026-2027 school year, and the numbers are eye-popping:
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The Cost: A non-refundable fee of $1,595 per student.
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The Deadline: Payment must be made in full by July 31, 2026.
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The Catch: Seats are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. While those who recently lost service may get priority, there is no guarantee of a spot if the existing routes are full.
A Fleet With No Home?
Perhaps the most shocking revelation from the meeting was the Superintendent’s proposal to buy a private fleet of school buses.
During the public discussion, the Superintendent reportedly admitted that the district currently has no place to store the vehicles. Residents quickly took to social media to blast the plan as “absolutely crazy,” questioning the logic of a multi-million dollar capital investment without a designated garage or parking facility.
The Budget Squeeze: Healthcare vs. Busing
The busing crisis isn’t happening in a vacuum. The Board also authorized a $2,147,843 budget adjustment specifically to cover skyrocketing healthcare benefit premiums for staff.
With over $2 million being diverted to health insurance, the district is lean on alternatives, leaving parents to foot the bill for transportation or find their own way to school.
🎥 How to Watch the Meeting
If you missed the fireworks, the recording is available on the Ridgewood BOE YouTube channel. Observers recommend skipping to the last 10 to 15 minutes to hear the full exchange regarding the bus fleet and the subscription fees.
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The school health care plan is in a death spiral.
Do they still have $5.00 co-pays?
There were never $5 co-pays.
didn’t they threaten to strike over the copay being raised from 5 to 10. Wasn’t that the year that teachers refused to write college recommendations for students until they got a contract
typical union tactics
How much sports spending has increased in the last 5 years? New turf for both stevens and stadium fields, new tennis courts, new contracts for field maintenance, 100K a year in flood insurance / flood management for the fields… the list goes on and on.
Don’t forget the hiring free for all at the Ed Center. The implementation of the many “assistants” and the resulting salaries and health care payments don’t make a lot of sense when the talk is to slim down the teaching staff.
Don’t forget the consulting firms used to hire a superintendent and help create the “vision 2030” plan.
They backed themselves into a corner with this new vision and trying to pay for it. Now, they can’t escape the mess they created.
Please share more about this revenue generating day care program the district has had for 40 years and why that is being cut.
Thank Allah we will have new $500k tennis courts at RHS.
Pay their own health insurance and provide free bus service
Where is the bus cutoff? Is it the other side of route 17?
$1600 plus 4% increase on taxes
Move 3 blocks to Hawthorne, pay 1/3 property tax and send ur kids to private school. Ridgewood is an indoctrination center
Most full size buses leave high school with less than 5 students.
RPS owning buses should cut down on bus rentals for traveling to sports/band competitions.
Have the staff pay more into their healthcare premiums, like the private sector has to and bus the kids to school! Ridiculous that they would charge for busing after the taxes they charge in Ridgewood!
This Superintendent is ridiculous. He should dump his Thursday coffee’s. No one wants to hear his crap. Then add the permission slips he had drafted by attorney’s last year that had a disclosure to hold bus drivers harmless in a town that does not own or hire drivers. After the Paramus bus incident who would ever hold a bus driver that must carry a B license harmless. The permission slips have since been redrafted and still exceed one page. He likes to spend money on crap product/ service.
He is a disaster. He made a stmt that turf fields do not cause cancer. Lawsuit
What the heck is “courtesy busing”?
While I am all for people paying for busses, since there are many of us for generations who never benefited from the bus service and should have. Let the parents sit in car line like the rest of us do before heading into the office. Otherwise let it hit their wallets. On the other hand the superintendent can’t seem to figure out the rent a cop is not reducing the traffic pattern in front of BF. I get it’s really a simple drop and go process, but some of these genius parents have difficulty wrapping their heads around drop and go. Somerville and HAWEs have staff outside in the morning that ensure traffic moves smoothly. The BF staff don’t stand outside telling parents to move along, so logically let’s get rid of that bus service to add to the already dangerous and chaotic drop off line.
I prefer not to pay for a kiss.
The word buss refers to a kiss, as does busses and bussing
The word bus refers to a transport vehicle, as does buses and busing
This is a death spiral. These teachers are overpaid as it is. They have the best part-time job in the world. If you are honest, you would agree. Important job, but it is part-time. They should pay a bigger piece of their health care costs; they are already very well compensated. Try to break the union. Let them walk, then hire replacement teachers. We would fill the new teacher roles in days, not weeks.
Don’t have kids then if you can’t afford to pay for them.
Last year Mayor Vagianos strong armed the Board of Ed to give $80,000.00 to the village for the permanent field lighting at Veteran’s field. Schwartz mentioned getting some of this back for much needed repairs. Interesting that they always have money for turf and lights. But yet the important things will now ratchet up the budget and parents will get stuck paying over fifteen hundred dollars per child.So if you have two kids that need courtesy busing, you will pay three thousand dollars, that’s insane. They’re bigger question.Is why do we have a council that we allow to overspend over and over and over again. I think they send the police cars and village vehicles down to cherry hill.To be fixed, I mean, can’t they find something closer?It makes no sense how money is being spent
Get out of the west side and see what happens at Chestnut and Douglas