In the wake of the deadly coach bus crash that killed two Farmingdale School District staff members and wounded many of the students on the bus on Sept. 21, the East Hampton School District on Tuesday unveiled a plan to create a policy to ensure the safety of its own students who board coach buses for school trips.
According to Adam Fine, East Hampton’s superintendent, the new policy will mandate inspections of such buses by the district’s own mechanics, as well as review of the drivers’ qualifications and safety records at least three days in advance of each trip. If a bus or a driver fails the inspection, the trip may be canceled, he warned.
“We are all very aware of the tragedy that occurred,” Mr. Fine said. “We send our kids to numerous locations, whether it be in the city, out of state, band competitions, athletic events. . . . I am not putting kids on a bus that fails an inspection.”
J.P. Foster, the board president, said the policy will guarantee the buses have “a high level of inspection” and “give us more of a guarantee that we’re safe.”
Also on Tuesday, EFPR, an independent auditing company that annually reviews the finances of many school districts on the South Fork, announced that it has awarded the East Hampton School District an “unmodified opinion” on its 2022-23 financial operations.
“An unmodified opinion is actually the best type of opinion you can receive,” said Jeffrey Jones, who led the audit for EFPR, at Tuesday’s school board meeting. He noted the evaluation found there were “no material weaknesses” in the financial report.
EFPR analyzed the district’s regular operating budget, along with its cafeteria fund, its government allocations, and its extra-classroom account, which includes money belonging to the district’s many student clubs.
He also said East Hampton has complied with a New York State rule that caps leftover budget money at 4 percent of the prior year’s budget. “We’ve seen many districts actually breaking that . . . so to still stay within 4 percent and within New York State regulations was really great to see.”
Mr. Jones said that the district’s management “was a pleasure to work with.”
Sam Schneider, East Hampton’s assistant superintendent for business, in turn thanked the office staff for its own hard work on the audit, saying he is “very proud of where we are.”
The board, which reviewed the audit in a prior meeting with EFPR, voted to accept the audit, for which documentation has been posted on the district website.
It was also announced that all students at East Hampton’s middle and high schools will soon be able to receive free breakfasts and lunches, regardless of their status with the federal free and reduced-cost lunch program, under the government’s community eligibility program.
The threshold at which a school qualifies — based on the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price meals — has been lowered from 40 percent to 25 percent, opening a window for the high school and middle school. The John M. Marshall Elementary School already has the program in place; Mr. Schneider estimated the program will begin around Thanksgiving for the other two campuses.
Additionally, the school board approved the deposit of millions of dollars in leftover budget money to its various reserve accounts. It voted to deposit just over $1.6 million into the repair reserve; $200,000 into its workers’ compensation fund; $375,000 into its retirement contribution accounts, and $250,000 into its Employee Benefit Accrued Liability Reserve, which is what the district sometimes relies on for sick-day payouts and other benefits for retiring employees. The sum of $310,000 from repair projects that came in under budget was also returned to the reserves.