Two Broadview Middle School students were transported to Danbury Hospital after a school bus accident Wednesday afternoon, said Elio Longo, director of finance for the Board of Education.
The accident involved a car and a bus, and no more information was available Wednesday night.
The accident was revealed in a Board of Education meeting, because the school system needs to have a school nurse on hand for an hour before school and after school in case of such an accident, Longo said.
Superintendent of Schools Sal Pascarella said hours for school nurses had been cut this year to save money in the budget, and this was an unanticipated consequence.
Wait, there's more!
The hours for the school nurses were not "just cut" this year. In the past 4 years, nurses were expected to be at school 15 minutes before the start and 15 minutes after the day ends - no more, no less. Should there be a nurse in call for such emergencies? Of course, but I believe that duty largely fell on the nurse supervisor. If no nurse or supervisor came to the accident, perhaps it was due to the cut of the full-time nurse supervisor position last year and now down to one nurse taking on the role of part-time supervisor and part-time school nurse. There lies the fault, where a district as large as Danbury and with numerous children with medical conditions we never would have seen in a school setting years ago, cuts a vital position because they deem it was unnecessary to have.
Boughton's dirty hands are all over this mess since it was the mayor who has drastically slashed funding for education over the years in order to keep his beloved "Triple A" bond rating that he boasts about anytime he speaks into a microphone...so much for People over Politics!
The members of the Board of Education don't get off the hook since they are responsible for allocating the money given to them by the city. Cutting funding for nurses (a.k.a. child safety) in order to save a buck is unconscionable.