Many of the students who attended the former Our Lady of the Angels Academy in Lansford are heading to St. Jerome's Regional School in Tamaqua this fall.

And at least one parent has concerns about overcrowding and long routes on the bus that will take them there.Officials with Panther Valley School District, which provides the bus, said that overcrowding shouldn't be a problem."The issue is, I don't think we're going to have overcrowding," business manager Ken Marx said.At Thursday's meeting of the Panther Valley School Board, Lansford resident Val Horvat asked the board whether they would consider adding a second bus to the route before the first day of school on Monday.Horvat said that 69 children, between kindergarten and eighth grade, are currently signed up to ride the morning bus, and 74 for the afternoon. The capacity for a school bus is 72."If you go on a field trip, it's only two kids a seat. You don't go to a football game and put three football players in a seat," she said.Horvat also said that a second bus would reduce the time that students spend on the bus.The current route will pick up the first students in Nesquehoning around 7:10 a.m. St. Jerome's starts at 8:35.School districts in Pennsylvania are not legally required to provide school bus services, but most in the state do.Marx said that he understood Horvat's concern.He said the district will have a backup van available to complete the route if the bus is crowded.She also questioned how one driver could handle a bus with 70 children and no monitor.Marx said that while the number of registered kids is high, oftentimes the number of students who actually ride the bus is much lower."A lot of the kids get driven to school. A lot of parents sign the kids up for busing as a backup if they can't make it, so it's available," he said.He said adding an additional bus costs the district approximately $38,000 per year, with a significant portion of that going to paying the driver.Marx said that the board's policy is to not put monitors on buses unless it has been determined that there is a problem.As for the time on the bus, he said that kids in other local districts are faced with the same situation, and that is something that will probably not change."Thank you for bringing the issue to us, it's nothing we can solve tonight. Let's see how Monday goes," board President Anthony DeMarco said.