Marlborough School Committee Backs Bus Camera Bill, Rejects Four MASC Resolutions

MARLBOROUGH -- September 24, 2024, Marlborough School Committee backed a state push for school-bus stop cameras while rejecting four of ten Massachusetts Association of School Committees resolutions at its September 24 meeting. The committee voted unanimously to support Resolution 4, the School Bus Stop Armed Surveillance Act, which would allow cities and towns to install live video detection systems on buses to enforce the law against passing stopped vehicles, a bill already moving through the legislature after clearing committee last session. Resolutions on raising the compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 18, directing schools to communicate Massachusetts firearm safe-storage law to parents, MSBA tiered reimbursement for vocational schools, an Extraordinary Routes Relief Fund for transportation costs, and expansion of vocational programs all failed, the latter on a split vote. Member Catherine Hennessey was named MASC delegate and member Denise Ryan alternate. The committee also accepted more than $3.2 million in state grants, including a $1,598,446 IDEA consolidated grant and a $1,262,580 ESSA consolidated grant, and heard a warning from administrators that the district's final year under its bus contract with NRT will force difficult service reductions: "We are not going to be able to afford that increase in cost to continue to do business as usual in the Marlboro Public Schools."