Schools

5 Things to Know About Willow Lane Busing

East Penn School Board makes no progress on Willow Lane busing issue.

For the most part Monday night’s meeting of the East Penn Board of School Directors was all about Willow Lane Elementary School busing, but no definitive action was taken nor was any progress made.

1. A motion to approve the site improvements for Willow Lane Elementary School, including traffic patterns, pavement striping, swing arm gates and enhancements to walking paths, was set aside until the board’s next meeting on March 11 to be sure that all interested community members have sufficient time to review the suggested improvements.

2. The school board meeting opened with a handful of Willow Lane parents addressing the board during the public comment portion, including Willow Lane parent Susan Coenen, who chastised the administration for doing things “backwards” trying to move forward with any sort of site improvements at Willow Lane without first looking at the process of picking up and dropping off kids at the school. 

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3. East Penn School District will go before the Lower Macungie Township Planning and Zoning Committee on March 14 looking for approval of the site improvements presented by district engineer Paul Szewczak of Liberty Engineering at Monday night’s school board meeting. Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger emphasized that he would rather go to Lower Macungie officials with a plan approved by the board. The plan will come up for another vote at the March 11 school board meeting.
 
4. Seidenberger said a parent committee, led by Willow Lane Principal Anthony Moyer, will address four main topics: traffic before school, traffic after school, traffic during bad weather and the organization of a "walking bus." A walking bus is a concept created by PennDOT and would simply mean a parent would walk a group of children to school, according to School Director Francee Fuller.
 
5. Julian Stolz withdrew a motion directing the district administration to form a committee comprising “but not necessarily limited to, a representative or representatives from the East Penn School Board, members of the administrations, parental representatives from the Willow Lane School who shall not be employees of nor closely related to employees of the East Penn School District and a representative or representatives from the Lower Macungie Township Board of Commissioners….” He will reintroduce the motion after it’s determined how the committee he is suggesting will work with or fit in with the committee to be headed by principal Moyer.


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