Revere Public School Looking To Reconfigure School Busing That Services ‘Extreme Points’ in the City

At last week’s Revere Public School Committee meeting, Revere Assistant Superintendent Dr. Richard Gallucci discussed the need for RPS to reconfigure some school bussing routes so students living in what he called ‘extreme points’ in the city would be better served.

RPS students that live within a mile of the school they are attending are typically not eligible for school bus service.

However, as Dr. Gallucci pointed out last week there are some exceptions and he hopes by reexamining some other bus routes the students that live in these extreme points in the city could get better transportation services.

“We have two buses that run from the Paul Revere School, one of which stops at the Old Oak Island area down North Shore Road as well as the more extreme point of Point of Pines, which is all the way down North Shore Road,” said Gallucci. “It’s these types of extreme points that have allowed us to provide elementary bus service to our students that live in these areas to ensure their safety in a timely ride home to those extreme points away from their neighborhood school.”

Gallucci pointed to a couple of other extreme points that RPS’s transportation office has worked out like the Ward Street area that’s on the other side of Squire Road.

“We actually have students from both the Whelan and the Lincoln Elementary Schools that come from that Rumney Flat area and would otherwise have to cross Squire Road and possibly, if they attend the Lincoln engage the Rotary at Broadway, which we all know growing up in the city is an extremely dangerous point,” said Gallucci.

While these are the areas Gallucci identified as extreme points in the city that need to have continued bus service for students, he noticed some inconsistencies with areas that are not quite as extreme as the ones previously mentioned.

Gallucci said students attending the Whelan use a bus stop at St. Mary’s Church on Malden Street but the bus stop is less than a mile to school and there are crossing guards at Vinny’s Market as well as at every entrance of the Whalen School complex that makes a walking route safe for students.

Gallucci added that there was an attempt to combine the St. Mary’s bus stop with a North Revere bus stop but that became problematic because the ridership was so large for both stops.

Gallucci made a recommendation to discontinue bus service from the St. Mary’s stop to the Whelan and add additional crossing guards.

Gallucci said there was another area south of the Whelan that was identified as an extreme point but Gallucci said it should be looked at and perhaps reconfigured.

Gallucci suggested the students that attend the Whalen that come from Dale Street, Park Ave and Reservoir Ave areas closest to Newbridge Cafe should continue to receive bus service but those students living in the Mountain Ave area should be able to safely walk to the Whelan.

“That area (around Mountain Ave.) has received bus service for the longest time but we feel it could be an area where we’d recommend discontinuing bus service, particularly with the wealth of crossing guards that surround the Whelan School area,” said Gallucci. “I feel like Park Ave is kind of the line of what becomes extreme if you move down to the overpass and towards the Newbridge area on the other side of the overpass,” he said. “That is quite a hike to the Whelan for those students as they’re crossing over Park Ave.”

Of his recommendations Gallucci said he and the transportation department really tried to be careful and look at areas with bus stops that were less than a mile from schools.