A Smooth Ride
WRITTEN BY MICHELLE FISHER While this year’s host
city for the NAPT and NASDPTS annual confer- ences, Memphis, Tenn., is best known for its musical roots, what you may not know is the stage has been set for a major shift at Memphis City Schools. Te largest school district in the state will merge with the fourth largest district, Shel- by County Schools, when the proposed consolidation takes effect on July 1, 2013. Shelby County encom-
passes all the public schools in the area but outside the corporate limits of the city of Memphis. Shelby County has the highest growth rate in the state, averaging 1,000 new students each year. Currently, MCS trans-
ports more than 28 percent of its students, while Shelby County transports roughly 50 percent — 23,000 out of 48,000. When MCS oper-
MEMPHIS CITY SCHOOLS TURNED TO A CONTRACTOR THREE YEARS AGO AND IMPROVED EFFICIENCY, BUT NEXT YEAR’S MERGER MEANS CHANGE
ations are transferred to the county, the number of student riders could swell to 51,000. MCS Deputy Superin- tendent Hatesh Haria told STN a plan is in place to ensure the same high level of bus service that contractor Durham School Services has provided since 2010. “We will implement
three bell times instead of two, which will save addi- tional funds for transpor- tation,” said Haria. “We are working through all of that as we move forward.” Yet, it remains to be seen
if Durham will ultimately be selected by the Shelby County Board of Education to continue contracted ser- vices. Te SCBE will vote on transportation vendors in March 2013 under a plan the Shelby County Tran- sition Planning Commis- sion approved last June. It already recommended that
both transportation and custodial services migrate to an experienced and quality third-party provider.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ON TIME
For now, Haria remains
focused on the current school year and recent successes, like the expansion of the district’s breakfast program and improved transportation efficiencies. “Everything has gone
tremendously well. We have been using Durham and have built upon our suc- cesses each year. Te level of service remains consistent,” Haria said. Durham School Services
GM Laura Warren said the contractor is working with MCS to achieve an on-time arrival rate of 100 percent for all 381 Memphis routes. Two years ago, Durham brought in a brand-new fleet equipped with air condition- ing and Zonar GPS, which is linked to Edulog’s routing solution to provide more de- tailed tracking and reporting. “We can do comparisons
“Our goal is to keep working through those routes to get every bus to every school on time.” — LAURA WARREN, DURHAM SCHOOL SERVICES
22 The Show RepoRTeR • OCT 20 –25, 2012
of the routes to see if the drivers are actually fol- lowing them and monitor driver behavior to resolve any issues with routes such as delays,” Warren contin- ued. “We are targeting to get our routes 100 percent on time — we’re around 98 percent right now. Our goal is to keep working through those routes to get every bus to every school on time.” Haria emphasized that
“on time” means on time for breakfast in the classroom. At MCS, 85 percent of stu- dents qualify for breakfast and lunch programs because they are economically
disadvantaged. “We want to make sure
kids get to school on time to have breakfast. When they get in front of an edu- cator, they need to be ready to learn,” Haria said. He added that new
technology is a key part of this strategy and applauded the in-house transportation staff for utilizing technolo- gy “very wisely.” “When you come into
our transportation depart- ment, it looks like a mission control room — four walls have TV screens for each of the four regions,” Haria said. “We tied in GPS with our routing software so we know exactly where each bus is on every route.” Warren noted the district
requested video cameras in every school bus to monitor what is happening on board. “Te cameras protect the students, and they also protect the drivers when students or parents do things they shouldn’t,” Warren said. “It’s helped us with some training issues for drivers.” Te district also worked
closely with Durham to cre- ate a new code of conduct for the bus and recently posted a new school bus safety video on its website. “We offer a video about
how kids should behave on the bus, made with our own kids from Hickory Ridge Middle School,” Haria said. “We want all of our kids to be safe [and] we want to encourage good behavior on the bus because it’s an ex- tension of the classroom.”
School bus driver Bonnie Reel and student Cedric Glaspie will see some changes if Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Public Schools merge for the 2013-2014 school year.
MEMPHIS TRANSPORTATION AT-A-GLANCE
• Contracting with Durham School Service since 2010
• 381 route buses, 40 spares
• 4.5 million miles traveled in 2011- 2012
• 28,000-plus student riders
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