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One South Jersey School Board Considering Ads On School Buses

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- New Jersey has come out with regulations covering advertisements on school buses.  And while there doesn't seem to be a stampede to adopt school bus ads, there is some interest.

The rules call for relatively modest ads (nothing like a SEPTA bus wrap) for non-controversial sponsors.

Jim Murphy, a school board member in Washington Township (Gloucester County), is a proponent of school bus ads to solve a particular problem involving school busing in his cash-strapped school district.

"State mandate says you have a two-mile limit that the children can walk to school, but we were giving them a mile and a half.  And then we had to take back from that," he recalls.  "We went back to the state mandate of two miles, and it caused a lot of unhappiness.  You figure a first-grader with a school pack walking two miles to school, that's a pretty good distance."

So, Murphy is exploring the ads idea to restore the courtesy busing.

Still, who would advertise, how much to charge, and how many sponsors would be sought are all unanswered questions in a brand new area of school administration.

Discussion is expected to resume at the August 25th school board meeting.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060

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