INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
Survey Addresses Need to Protect Kids Around Bus Stops
Te full, final report on the
National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey was re- leased the third week of January, and it gives greater detail on the safety of school kids at bus stops [Editor’s note, see the full story at
www.stnonline.com/go/772]. Last month, this paper reported that the 13 overall student fatalities during the 2009-2010 school year around the school bus
“danger
zone” was about 25 percent fewer than the 17 recorded student fa- talities the previous year. Still, a
disturbing trend was a spike in the number of children killed by the front bus tires. “We say just keep doing what you’re doing as far as the training and get it
passed on that [drivers] have got to slow down,” said Larry Bluthardt, state director of pupil transportation in the Kansas State Department of Educa- tion’s School Bus Safety Unit, which conducts the survey and prepares the report. “It’s their internal mph. Where is their thought process at the very moment or a few seconds prior to the child being hit? What is it that has the driver somewhere else other than what they should be focused on? What’s the driver thinking? I don’t know if we’ll ever get an answer.” As has been echoed time and time again, Bluthardt said it all comes
down to the on-gong training, the consistency of re-training and focus- ing on the proper things while behind the wheel of the bus. “Until all those kids are off the bus and you’re back at the bus barn
you’re still on the clock,” he added. “Let’s stay focused with what we’ve got going on.” In response to the spike of student fatalities to 17 during the 2008-
2009 school year, the School Bus Safety Company released last March a free “Danger Zones” training module to the industry with the help of NAPT, 247 Security and the Public School Risk Management Institute. Jeff Cassell, president of School Bus Safety Company, said in January that the training, which includes a DVD and safety curriculum in the form of workbooks, is being used in about 3,000 school districts nationwide that represent more than 210,000 school buses, or about 44 percent of the national fleet of 480,000 school buses. “Te good news is that we took steps to try to bring down these fatali-
ties, and that alone makes me feel really good,” said Cassell. “If we can help save the life of one child, I am over the moon. I have two boys aged 8 and 10, and they both ride a Petermann school bus every day.” Te industry was also reminded recently that student safety near the
bus stop extends to when the bus is not immediately present. A Naples, Fla., student was stabbed to death by another student shortly after un- loading his school bus in late January. Te stabbing resulted from an argument that started on the bus that escalated after the two boys got off. On the same day in St. Louis, police said two armed men robbed several middle school children at three different bus stops.
14 School Transportation News Magazine March 2011
McLerran Bids Adieu to Oklahoma DOE, Plans to Keep Ties to Industry
Randy McLerran re-
tired last month from the Oklahoma Department of Education after 20 years as the executive di- rector of transportation, student transfers and capital improvement. “It was a difficult de- cision, but I believe it is
time to do something different,” he said. “I have en- joyed my 20 years as state director and my 31 years in school transportation. With a combined total of 37 years in public education, I felt it was time to pur- sue other interests.” Tose “other interests” will likely come in the form
of having something to do with the industry. But he remained tight-lipped about exactly what those plans entail until he officially left the state agency on Feb.
End of an Era? Te National School Transportation Association “enthu-
siastically” applauded South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for her call during her Jan. 12 inauguration address to privatize the state’s school bus fleet. South Carolina is the only state in the nation that owns and maintains its entire fleet of some 5,900 school buses for local school systems. Te state also operates the oldest school buses in the nation while facing a state budget deficit of at least $1 billion, which prompted Haley to echo a similar call made in 2003 by for- mer Gov. Mark Sanford to outsource the fleet to private school bus operators. In a letter to Haley on Jan. 17, NSTA President Donnie
Fowler wrote: “We realize that in these economic times, you face difficult budgetary choices, including adequate funding for the education of the children of your State. Contracting for auxiliary school services like transporta- tion, food service, and custodial service is an excellent tool school boards can use to keep a narrower focus on the busi- ness of educating and put more dollars in the classroom through the savings realized from contracted services.” New State Superintendent Mick Zais has also expressed
his interest in exploring the issue, but first a proposal must come from Gov. Haley. Charleston County and Beufort County Public Schools have experimented with contract- ing previously. A spokesman for Zais said the Department of Education will “certainly be seeking” input from all school systems once Gov. Haley’s proposal is completed. Tere was no time frame at this writing for when that might occur.
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