Students arriving to the five elementary schools in Stoughton Thursday morning were greeted by a police officer counting how many students got off the bus.

The Stoughton Police Department was following up on what Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marguerite Rizzi calls an “unsubstantiated allegation” that the school system’s buses are overcrowded.

FOX 25-TV first reported this allegation of overcrowding on the Stoughton Public School buses.

So are the bus overcrowded? That depends who you ask.

Scott Mellyn, whose daughters, Amanda and Sarah, commute daily via school bus, believes that they are. 

Amanda Mellyn told FOX 25 that the buses are “so packed; there’s no room for anyone at all. There’s three kids to a seat, people falling off seats. There’s no room whatsoever…and it’s hard to find a seat.” She said students often sit in the aisles of the bus.

After the School Department said Scott Mellyn filed a formal complaint on Sept. 20, he and his two daughters spoke publicly to FOX 25 on Sept. 21.

Mellyn, who is also a Stoughton Firefighter, told FOX 25 that the seats are designed to have two students per seat—“that’s how they’re designed to absorb impact, from the seat in front of them. If they’re sitting in the aisle with other kids, there’s no protection at all.”

Dr. Rizzi, in her brief on-air statement to FOX 25 said, “We don’t allow overcrowding on the buses in Stoughton.”

This is the second complaint the schools have received regarding overcrowding on the buses this school year, according to Stoughton Public Schools. The first complaint was made on Sept. 13.

Joel Harding, Director of Support Services, heads the transportation for all schools with the assistance of Margaret Tarpey. It costs $360 for bus transportation in Stoughton. Each year, Harding sets a June 29 deadline for transportation requests for the following school year.

Rizzi, explaining some of the transportation specifics, said “Mr. Harding does his best to accommodate all of the families who meet that deadline.”

“In terms of overcrowding, the legal capacity is 77 students [allowing for 3 students to a seat],” she told Stoughton Patch in a follow-up interview. “However, the standard that Mr. Harding has established is no more than 67 students on a secondary bus and no more than 70 at the elementary level.”

“Currently, we have 16 families on the waiting list for transportation,” Dr. Rizzi added.  “The allegation of overcrowding is without merit…We are not legally overcrowded or even at legal capacity.”

The Stoughton Public Schools keeps a detailed “trip analysis,” tracking the start and finish time, total distance traveled and number of students on the bus, for each bus route everyday.

Each bus had less than 70 students per trip, according to the "trip analysis” sheet released by the Stoughton Public Schools for Sept. 21.

In regards to students having to stand up or sit on backpacks in the aisles, as was mentioned in the FOX 25 report, Dr. Rizzi told Stoughton Patch, “bus drivers are instructed to keep a rule of no standing. If a student is in fact standing then they have chosen to disregard this rule.”

Amanda Mellyn told FOX 25, “[Dr. Rizzi] hasn’t rode the bus before, so she has no idea. I don’t think it’s right for her to say there’s no problem with the bus. There’s clearly a problem with the bus because there’s too many people.”

To this, Dr. Rizzi responded, “I do not need to ride a bus to know that they are not overcrowded.”  She added that it is customary for her to ride the buses the beginning of every year, but does so once the routes are settled.

The photo shown on FOX 25, presumably snapped at or near the back of a bus, shows a crowded bus full of students. But Dr. Rizzi isn’t convinced this is sufficient evidence that the buses are overcrowded.

“While I see two students touching, the outer edges are foggy. It is unclear if there are even students sitting in the window seats or not,” she said.

Dr. Rizzi added that the elementary school principals had concerns in regards to the police cruisers being present at student drop-off time.

“There was no contact from the police department to validate the complaint or to notify them [the principals] of police officers being at the schools,” she said.

Executive Officer Robert Devine of the Stoughton Police Department, responded to both the schools’ principals and families concern for the police presence. 

He told Stoughton Patch that the SPD “has no record of complaint made about overcrowding of buses.” Chief Paul Shastany saw the news report this morning and wanted some hard data to see if there was validity to these claims, according to Devine.

“When the Chief is made aware of a possible issue of public safety, he is required to follow up and determine its truth,” Devine said.

“An on-shift directive was made for one officer [to be] sent to an elementary school within their designated sector,” Devine added. 

The police logs from Thursday morning indicated that each of the nine buses observed were in compliance.

When asked about the officers solely being at elementary schools when Mellyn’s complaint was made about buses for the secondary routes, Devine said, “it was a matter of timing, those bus routes had already been completed.”

Dr. Rizzi questions “why the Police Department, without calling the schools, would allocate resources on an unsubstantiated allegation.”

Devine said the morning’s head count did not cost additional tax dollars. “It is part of our patrol unit’s regular routine,” he said. “It really isn’t any different than a radar post.”