Paterson to bus 160 students from School 27 to Don Bosco
By Jayed Rahman
Published: February 13, 2019
The school district is moving 160 students in the sixth grade from School 27 to the Don Bosco Technical Academy on the other side of the city.
School officials said students will be bused to Don Bosco beginning in 2019-20 school year.
The district will need three buses to transport the students which will cost approximately $150,000, according to the proposal presented to the school board. It will also need three bus aides for $8,700. Funds have been budgeted for in the 2019-20 budget.
Current sixth grade staff from School 27 will be moved to Don Bosco. At the new location, the district will need to place two specialists for art and music.
Assistant superintendent Sandra M. Diodonet said the Don Bosco school at the old Paterson Catholic High School building has plenty of room for students. The school has an enrollment of 708 students, but can host 1,000.
Meanwhile, kindergarten students, who are in trailers at School 27 will be moved inside the building.
“Kindergarten students will not have to travel back and forth for specials and lunch in the rain, cold weather, or extreme cold weather,” said Diodonet last week. She said there are 86 kindergartners housed in four trailers at School 27.
Once the students are moved out of the trailers, the district will have to decide whether to move the trailers elsewhere or dispose of them.
Diodonet said it will cost $400,000 to move the four trailers to Don Bosco and $100,000 to remove and dispose of them. She said the trailers could be used as a “Community Student Center” or used as a suspension center in the western section of the city.
The move is second phase of an effort to re-organize schools in the western section of the city. Previously, as part of phase one, School 27 moved its eighth graders to Don Bosco. School 5 also moved its sixth graders to Don Bosco.
School officials said the move will allow the district to have all its middle school students from the western part of the city in one location.
Once the new school building on Union Avenue is completed in 2021, the students from Don Bosco will be moved back to their neighborhood school.
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