HEADLINES
“New” State Directors Carving Their Own Path
By Sylvia Arroyo Since North Dakota State Director Ken-
neth Steiner entered into his new role in January 2010, he has realized firsthand the push and pull at the local level between school districts and parents on student transportation issues, such as questioning bus routes. “I get calls from parents as well. Many
students in the state live up to 40 miles away from their school,” Steiner said. Meanwhile, his main challenge is driver
recruitment. Finding drivers has been an issue because of the high-paying driving jobs offered by the local oil companies. North Dakota has overtaken California as the third-largest U.S. oil-producing state, cutting the unemployment rate to the lowest in the country. Just a day in the life of a state director. Steiner, Michael LaRocco (Indiana),
Trent Gibson (Oklahoma) and Donell Rosenthal (Montana) are but four of the new state directors over the past two years who have realized their jobs aren’t so so clear cut. Tey are at a point, though, where they are carving their own path and tackling issues that affect their state. In Indiana, LaRocco and school districts
are following the pending lawsuit filed by a parent who is suing Franklin Township Schools over school bus fees as well as a bill that would ban school districts from charging parents to have their children ride the bus. At press time, the bill to ban the fee-based system in Franklin Town- ship was awaiting the governer’s signature. Additionally, LaRocco is focused on
increasing the state’s training capabilities to meet the needs of the school districts with a limited budget and revamping the state’s school bus specifications. In Oklahoma, Gibson is working on stan-
dardizing and getting more people involved in the state’s school bus inspection process.
“One of the challenges is initiating third-
party inspections without any money. Currently the schools can do it themselves or they hire someone to do it,” he said. One of Gibson’s goals is to provide better
bus driver training to deal with bad stu- dent behavior on the bus. Meanwhile, Montana’s Rosenthal is
looking at whether seat belts should be mandatory statewide. At press time, the Helena School Board voted to use First Stu- dent-run buses equipped with lap/shoulder seat belts. Rosenthal was also looking into possibly establishing guidelines or regula- tions for student activity motorcoaches.
COMING INTO THEIR OWN Steiner’s background with the North
Dakota Department of Public Instruction’s is school finance. Since then, he has had to also become more involved with state school bus rules and regulations in ad- dition to the data collection for student transporters. While other states are seeing budgets
dwindling for their school districts, the horizon in North Dakota is a bit differ- ent. Over the years the state has increased funding for transportation. “We don’t look like the rest of the coun-
try. Te state is sitting with a billion-dollar surplus budget,” said Steiner. LaRocco became state director of Indiana
in July 2010, but he is no newcomer to the student transportation industry. He served as a transportation director at two different school districts and at a Head Start agency before assuming his current post. He said the learning curve in his new
position was rather short, but he did realize some new things about the job — mainly that he is not as directly involved in operational matters as he originally thought he would be. “We provide train-
24 School Transportation News Magazine April 2012 Gibson Steiner
ing and guidance on rules, but we have no authority over a local district,” he said. After starting in June 2011, Gibson en- countered an initial
learning curve. He
entered the education field as a teacher and then became an assistant transpor- tation director before becoming state director. But that learning curve was shortened because of something
Rosenthal LaRocco
he
quickly realized — he has knowledge- able and dedicated colleagues who have helped him get up to speed on things. “Tere is always someone who can help
me get an answer to something or who can point me in the right direction to get the right answer,” Gibson said. Rosenthal began her position per-
manently last April and came from the Montana Office of Public
Instruction’s
school finance division. She said her No. 1 priority is assisting school district business managers and clerks in reporting their route information and individual contract information for state and county reim- bursement. She realized the important role she
plays as the gatekeeper of information for school districts in her state. “School districts call me and ask ques-
tions, and I give them advice on safety or what the state law is or information on federal regulations,” she said. ■
Visit
stnonline.com and our Latest News section for an article on veteran state direc- tor Charlie Hood of Florida. Read about his experience, issues that affect his state and the advice he has for “new” state directors.
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