Two minutes before Communication High School’s (CHS) dismissal, a startling announcement rang over the loudspeaker: “If the bus you take home is Seman-Tov, it’s not coming.”
At 2:19 p.m. on Sept. 8, students and teachers frantically gathered on the front sidewalk to determine how to get the 50 stranded students back to their homes in Middletown. At the same time, as many as 3,000 students in Neptune, from kindergarten to 12th grade, were left deserted throughout the township’s seven schools.
“The main office received a call from the Middletown Transportation Department around 2:15 p.m. informing [CHS] that Seman-Tov had cancelled all their routes effective immediately,” CHS secretary Sarah Giangorgi said. “Middletown then commented that it only applied to routes serviced by large Seman-Tov buses.”
Seman-Tov supplies over 20,000 students in Monmouth and Ocean Counties with busing, according to their website. In a statement to The Lakewood Scoop, Seman-Tov apologized for the recent delays in transportation and said they are “working diligently” to resolve the issue. They did not specify what kind of issue caused the disruption in
transportation.
“We are close to finalizing a solution and will notify each school as soon as service is restored,” the statement said. Seman-Tov refused to respond directly to inquiries from The Inkblot News. CHS is not responsible for providing transportation to its students. Instead, bussing is supplied by students’ home districts. Members of the CHS community had to rely on communication from these home districts, causing more confusion and chaos for students and staff alike. With buses gone and students abandoned, the duty then fell to the Class of 2026 to ensure their stranded classmates were transported home safely. Among the seniors who stepped up was Dylan Glusman of Middletown, who took a 15-minute detour to drive a peer home who would have otherwise been stuck.
Glusman later commented that the lack of prior communication from the bus company and the Middletown Township School District created unnecessary stress for everyone involved.
“I think that it should have been handled before the last minute of school because I just don’t think it’s fair to everyone’s families, especially the people who live so far away,” Glusman said. “I don’t think it should have been the seniors’ job to handle it.”
Freshman Grace Wahl of Middletown was among the students left without a way of getting home during the last-minute bus cancellations. As a member of Middletown High School North’s cheerleading team, Wahl was at risk of missing the start of a home football game due to the sudden and unexpected transportation issues.
“I was shocked and stressed because I had somewhere to be, and I didn’t have a ride to get there,” Wahl said. “I just wish they told us sooner; then, I would’ve had time to tell my parents to come pick me up, since I live so far away.”
Wahl was eventually escorted to the game by a CHS senior, but because of the delay, she was forced to join her team at halftime instead of from the beginning. With students finally returned home, safe and sound, families were left wondering when bus service would be resumed. Luckily, alternative transportation was provided for CHS students to arrive at school on time the next morning.
“I received a call from Middletown the next day stating that they received notification that all Middletown routes, including to CHS, were covered, so no one should be without a bus,” Giangorgi said.
With the Sept. 8 complications resolved, many students and parents are left in fear of a similar issue occurring again. For some CHS students, Seman-Tov’s unreliability is nothing new. Junior Giada DeMaio of Middletown said she witnessed Seman-Tov’s transportation woes, expressing that she was unsurprised by the incident’s outcome.
According to DeMaio, incidents like these aren’t isolated but part of a pattern.
“We’ve accidentally driven into military bases and hit a medical vehicle once. Last year, the engine on our bus caught on fire, and we couldn’t get to school on time,” DeMaio said. “[Seman-Tov] is always going to cut corners. They’re already on the radar for being unsafe, and I really don’t think that they’re going to change.”
These repeated instances of unpredictability and safety concerns have built a long-standing distrust among students, leaving many wary of relying on the company.
“Does it strike me that it was Seman-Tov that was having a large issue?” Bonilla said. “No, it does not.”
