Bus Cuts a Punishment to Voters? You Bet

Like many school districts nationwide, Upper Township School District in Petersburg, N.J., located near Ocean City is saddled with immense budget cuts. This school year, the district saw its operating budget reduced by nearly $1 million, and transportation was one of the program losers. To make ends meet, the school board to relocate school bus stops from neighborhood cul-de-sacs to hubs along busy area highways and to start school later in the day. And parents aren't too thrilled.

But, according to news reports, many of those same parents voted down a new school budget. So the parents are saying that the school district is using the school bus stop changes as a way to penalize them.

Actually, that's probably not too far from the truth. The parents are being penalized, and worse yet so are their children. But I wouldn't say it's the school district's fault. As superintendent Vincent Palmierri says:

"We were charged to eliminate almost $1 million without impacting education ... It’s hard. I don’t know how you do that without impacting education. We heard the community clearly and very loudly. We had a very defeated budget for a lot of reasons."

Sometimes it takes an economic downturn to show people reality. I don't relish tax increases, but I recognize that something has to give when it comes to expecting public services when there is only so much money to go around. Certainly, a case could be made for ensuring that money is spent in the wisest, most efficient manner. But according to this news article, it appears that is exactly what the school district is trying to do amid new state regulations for budget oversight.

You would think the recession would have taught us all a lesson by now that at some point society must be willing to shoulder the burden for increased costs of certain services or accept that those services will be reduced or eliminated.

NSTA's Robin Leeds on CNN: 20% of Schools are Reducing Transportation

By Ryan Gray

Robin Leeds, the industry consultant to the National School Transportation Association and a 2009 STN EXPO keynote speaker, was just interviewed on CNN Newsroom regarding massive budget cuts nationwide that are hitting schools, and as a result school transportation services are falling by the wayside.

The American Association of School Administrators recently reported via a survey of its members conducted last month that 44 percent of schools are eliminating field trips and 35 percent are consolidating bus routes as a way to deal with strangling budget freezes and eliminations. Forty-eight states are experiencing shortfalls in their budgets that are affecting education. Today, Leeds told CNN anchor Kyra Phillips that 20 percent of the nation's schools are experiencing some kind of cutback to regular school bus route services.

Phillips, who said she rode the school bus as a child, expressed outrage and asked what effect these cuts will have on child safety, such as opening up students to sexual predators.

While Leeds didn't touch on the sexual predator topic, she did mention that only about 20 students are killed in or around the school bus each year, about 16 on average who aren't even riding the bus at the time and are struck as pedestrians who just disembarked the bus or were about to board, according to U.S. DOT estimates. Sometimes these kids are hit by the bus itself, but more often they are struck by passing motorists. Meanwhile, Leeds said some 800 students on average are killed each year on their way to or from school in other vehicles, waking or riding bicycles, again based on federal estimates.

Leeds did relay to Phillips and viewers a phone call she recently received from a grandmother living in Indiana who was concerned about recent cuts made at her 8-year-old grandchild's school district.

Lack of money was forcing the schools to reduce routes to the point that a local church parking lot was being designated as student congregation area for morning pick-ups and drop-offs. The grandchild lives 3/4 miles from the church, but the only route to and from the church is along a busy four-lane highway with a posted 55 mph speed limit and no shoulder due to highway construction.

As the segment ran out of time, Phillips promised Leeds that CNN would stay on top of the issue and would bring her back in the near future.

Keeping the Rubber on the Road: NYC Senior Citizens to Ride School Buses for Free

NYC School Buses to be Used for Access-A-Ride Program When Not Transporting Students

By Lisa J. Hudson

School buses that sit idle between their morning and afternoon runs would be put in service to transport New York City's senior citizens under a proposed quality of life improvement plan announced August 25 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The offer of free bus transportation to supermarkets to increase access to healthy food options is just one of 59 recommendations announced at a joint press conference with the Mayor, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and the New York Academy of Medicine, which praised the recommendations as a blueprint to enhance city's livability for older New Yorkers.

"Department of Education school buses, when they are not needed to transport students, will be available to older New Yorkers at no charge," the recommendation report, Age Friendly NYC Enhancing Our City’s Livability for Older New Yorkers, states. Transportation will be provided for older adults from senior centers and naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) to supermarkets throughout the five boroughs.

Mayor Bloomberg explained, “We’re going to be using our school buses, which, if you think about it, stand vacant for a large part of the day, to shuttle older New Yorkers to and from grocery stores.”

The New York Times, reporting from the press conference, stated that the cost of using school buses for this program, "would be minimal, since the drivers are already paid for more hours than they actually work," and went on to quote Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, who said, "We’ve purchased the full day’s service, so it’s within the contract."

The article did not offer a reaction by school bus drivers, the unions that represent them or the private school bus operations whose drivers would be impacted. The idea for using school buses to transport New York City's older residents comes from a pilot program in Brooklyn which started providing rides to an estimated 1,800 New Yorkers last year.

The idea of riding the school bus for this program garnered mixed reactions. Most seniors who spoke with the New York Times were skeptical, and their concerns included the potential lack of room for them to sit comfortably, that air conditioning would be a must, and that the lack of bathroom facilities on board would also be of concern.

On the other hand, given some of the criticisms of Access-a-Ride, the federally-mandated service for people who cannot use public transit usually due to mobility impairments, and taxis by seniors in the blueprint report, the school bus may provide the balance the administration is seeking.

For example, in the blueprint, seniors noted several reliability and efficiency concerns with Access-A-Ride. The Mayor acknowledged these cost efficiency concerns at the press conference, saying that, “You see the Access-A-Ride vans going all around the city, many times with only one or two people in them.”

Additionally, seniors indicated in the blueprint report that many taxis and livery cabs are not wheelchair accessible or easy to get in and out of. For other transportation initiatives where Access-A-Ride, taxis and livery cabs will be needed, the plan is to improve these services by adding GPS and implementing phone notification system in Access-A-Ride vans and a creating a better matching system of accessible taxis and livery cabs with seniors that need these features.

But going back to the school bus issue, the paper did speak with one supporter of the idea: Lovette Glasgow, a 75-year-old retired teacher, who was more willing to give the school buses a chance, and told the paper, “I’m a former educator so I know about yellow school buses. The bus is fine."

The mayor's committee is said to want to have the school bus for a senior’s initiative running by next month.

School Transportation Has No Immunity from Decisions About the Flu

By Peggy Burns

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its “Guidance for State and Local Public Health Officials and School Administrators for School (K-12) Responses to Influenza during the 2009-2010 School Year.” CDC predicts that schools and health officials can help protect 1/5 of the country’s population from flu by implementing its suggestions. School transportation professionals should be aware:

• Staff members with flu-like illness should be urged to stay home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medicines.
• Cleaning bus interiors thoroughly would appear to comport with the CDC recommendation that “School staff should routinely clean areas that students and staff touch often with the cleaners they typically use.”
• School administrators are urged to “balance the risks of flu” with the “disruption dismissals will cause in both education and the wider community.”
• While direct impacts on school transportation operations are not addressed in the Guidance, school transportation administrators are, perhaps, in the best position to consider proactively what those impacts may be and discuss them with school district officials.

Peggy Burns is an attorney/consultant with Education Compliance Group, Inc. Peggy can be reached at (888) 604-6141 and by email to ecginc@qwestoffice.net.

Making Them Feel the Hurt

Here in Colorado, like elsewhere, school districts are cutting stops and consolidating routes, and parents are expressing concern. For the second time in as many weeks, I recently heard a respected school district administrator comment “Let them feel the hurt.” When I was in-house counsel, that was a typical reaction from management when the community had voted down a mill levy increase or bond issue. We often felt that parents had to experience the true cost of their decision, and if band programs or class size was impacted, that was, after all, the point of going to the public for money. I’m finding myself wondering if, in fact, budget cuts necessitated by our economic recession really warrant the same brusqueness.

In any event, it seemed like an apropos time to suggest that we do everything in our power to ensure that the “hurt” affects only convenience and not safety or student achievement. Think about ways you can minimize the possibility that student welfare and school attendance will suffer. Monitor closely the effects of the changes you’ve been forced to make. We’re all in this one together, and we need to weigh and minimize the risks attentively.

Peggy Burns is an attorney/consultant with Education Compliance Group, Inc. Peggy can be reached at (888) 604-6141, and by email.

Hail, Hail the Band’s All ... Wait, Where Did it Go?

A quick look at how the economy is affecting school activity trips ...

As has been documented for sometime during the current economic recession, schools have been forced to make deep cuts to their transportation operations to ensure money continues to flow into classrooms. In additional to reductions in regular routes and school bus driver positions, a popular victim has been school activity trips and namely school bands. Take what has happened to the award-winning Richland High School band in Texas’ Birdville Independent School District.

Budget cuts have forced the band to decline an invitation to attend the prestigious Bands of America Grand National contest in Indianapolis this November. Bus transportation to such events held outside the greater Fort Worth area can cost the school district $2,000 a day not to mention competition entry fees, motel rooms and food. Last year, the American Association of School Administrators surveyed members and found that nearly half reported cut backs to student field trips. With many months, at least, remaining before the economy turns and state budget deficits affecting upwards of 48 states, things are getting tighter and tighter for schools

Back to School a Time to Recall Security

By Ryan Gray

No mention of school transportation is made in an article in the Aug. 9 issue of Parade magazine discussed a way of life many commuters know all too well: mass transit as a terror target. Still, mass transit has recieved $400 million last year to use on security initiatives, a figure the American Public Transportation Association points out is less than 2 percent of the money spent on airline security since 9/11.

Meanwhile, school transportation has received about $7 million in federal funds over the past five or six years total, and most of that money has gone to clean diesel initiatives, according to American School Bus Council members this week, this despite boasting about 10 billion individual students rides each school year, about the same number of riders that APTA says utilize mass transit annually.

Still, as schools start up again, safety and security is a common theme in newspaper articles and TV news segments around the country. But few will talk about terrorism. True, there has yet to be a catastrophic incident involving mass transit or school buses in this country, but the Transportation Security Administration reported 171 mass-transit incidents worldwide in 2007. Public transportation in general remains a soft target for terrorists, yet the funding pales in comparison to what airlines have received since 9/11, about $20 trillion.

Hopefully it won't take another 9/11 to change things.

Update: Yesterday, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $1.2 billion in additional federal stimulus grants to transit that will in part address increased security. There has been no such funds for school transportation. The only stimulus money schools have been eligible for regarding transportation services was $156 million earlier this year tied to the National Clean Diesel Campaign.

Tales of Lost Love, Never-Forgotten Memories

Hilton Head, S.C., newspaper The Island Packet recently posted a collection of its readers' stories revolving around the yellow bus. The memories include a tale of a first kiss and it's unfortunate repercussions, singing "Doo-wop" songs on the ride home and falling off the bus at the bus stop on the first day at a new school.

You've Heard of Adopt-a-Highway, Now There's Adopt-a-Watt

A new program that solicits corporate sponsorship of solar-power lights around communities, like at a Taylor, Mich., school district's bus stops, is being offered around the nation to help promote projects that utilize renewable alternative fuels.

The program will install 50 solar light stands with the revenue being evenly split between the city and the school district. Sponsorships of around $2,000 each will completely pay for the lights, with the sponsors being listed on a sign similar to shows that adorn stretches of highway.

The excess funds can be used for any purpose that reduces fossil fuel consumption and operating costs. Projects under consideration at Taylor include the purchase of new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for the city and, for the school district, cleaner burning biodiesel fuel for school buses or even large-scale solar electric systems for school buildings.

The school board approved the program on July 14.

Adopt-a-Watt is already in place at several airports across the country including at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport and Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. The program also has it's first celebrity spokesperson, Linda Gray of the 1980s TV show "Dallas" fame.

Fighting the PR Battle with Parents Requires Some Understanding

By Ryan Gray

As children across the nation prepare for another school year, millions will be heading to school for the very first time. Kindergartners are notorious for envying bigger kids who seem to have all the independence and confidence in the world. Little do they know!

It makes me chuckle that these young students want so badly to grow up, eager to take on all of life's responsibility, when sometimes I want so badly to just go outside and play. But then I remember I felt the same way at that age, as do most of us.

Still, these kids are very young and oftentimes very small. The school bus could be a scary place ... with all of those big kids, all those big steps to climb. But a blog originating from Tallahassee, Fla., points out that it is oftentimes the parents who are the most scared. Despite her in-coming kindergartner desperately wanting to ride the bus (of course, because he is a big kid!), a mother is petrified that her son is too young to ride unattended. She questions if her child will be left on the bus or let off at the wrong stop. And there are plenty of comments from other mothers telling her not to do it!

Think about your own operation, if it even buses kindergartners, and how user friendly it is to not only your youngest riders but their parents? Do you take the time to find out if some of your new kids are first born, meaning their parents are probably sick to their stomach at the thought of turning their baby loose into the big, bad world.

Food for thought as the buses begin to roll out of the yard.

A Different Kind of Smoking Bus

Tom Vanderbilt, author and the proprietor of the blog "How We Drive," touches on the subject of smoking while driving, prompted by a comment made by a reader, a school bus driver, in an earlier post:

“I don’t smoke, but I don’t see smoking a cigarette as a highly distracting activity and I doubt that there was ever a fatality in a school bus tied to the driver smoking while driving.”

We can't recall ever hearing of a school bus crash much less a fatality caused by a driver who is smoking. But, also as far as we know, most school bus drivers shouldn't be smoking while driving kids in the first place. Many school districts ban drivers from smoking on the bus with or without kids onboard.

What are the regulations in your school district?

School Bus Safety Misses Kids Like Marcus

By Ryan Gray

Crashes happen. They are a byproduct of life. But accidents they rarely are. Usually, a traffic collision results from some sort of operator error. Short of a vehicle malfunction, they usually arise due to driver behavior that could have been avoided. That's a testament to safety of school bus drivers, as on average six children die on-board the bus each year.

I know, one is too many, but school buses do represent the safest form of ground transportation in America. The federal government admits as much. But does such a claim also pays disservice to the 8,500 or so children who are injured as a result of crashes, whether those be the fault of school bus driver or other motorists.

One of these students is Marcus Button, a Tampa Bay, Fla., teen who suffered life altering injuries as a result of a 2007 crash that resulted when a school bus driver failed yield the right of way. The boy and his parents are suing the Pasco County school district, and the trial started late last month.

Marcus detailed on the stand how the brain damage he suffered took away his sense of smell and most of his sense of taste. He was hospitalized for three months following the accident and underwent several surgies to repair his broken face.

The plot thickens, however, when you realize that Marcus was not riding on the school bus but in a friend's car. Would the teen be preparing for the upcoming college academic year, parties and football games this fall had he been on the yellow bus instead of struggling to even walk? Perhaps. Regardless, it serves as a reminder that school bus operators cannot forget those students who for whatever reason don't ride the bus, whether they choose not to or are ineligible to ride in the first place. And with the economy and resulting reductions or all out cuts to school transportation, those numbers are growing.

It also puts a face the thousands of students who do ride the school bus but are injured in crashes. Most are minor, but life-altering injuries occur there, too. In two years, all newly manufactured small school buses must be equipped with lap/shoulder restraints. They will remain an option on all large buses.

It will be interesting to not only see data on how many serious injuries will be reduced by seat belts but how the technology might school buses seem even safer to parents and kids like Marcus who chose not to utilize the service. It might just positively alter thousands of additional lives.