INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
END OF AN ERA Richard “Dick” Fischer, the man who has just about seen
it all when it comes to school busing in North America and beyond, announced in late June that this month he concludes his travels around the nation to teach his famed, 40-hour School Bus Driver Instructor Course. Fischer estimates that he’s taught more than 4,000
school-bus drivers since he began offering the 40-hour training in 1985 in Kansas. He estimated that he as taught at least one driver from all 50 states. “Next year I’ll be 79 and I’m getting kind of tired, if
you follow what I mean,” he said. But don’t think that Fischer and wife Maggie, who has
often accompanied Dick to industry events, are slowing down. Te couple plan to set sail on a 75-day cruise to the South Pacific to follow the course the U.S. Naval fleet took during World War II, from the Solomon Islands all the way to Japan. Fischer calls it a “history run,” aptly put by the man who has seen and made so much history himself. He is considered the “Father of School Bus Safety
Week” for implementing the first public awareness cam- paign for school bus safety in 1960, when he was trans- portation supervisor at Centralia Unified High School District in Orange County, Calif. Within a couple of years, the celebration spread throughout the county and neighoring Los Angeles. Fischer then developed a national committee to orga-
nize similar events, and in 1969 he succeeded in getting an unofficial school-bus safety proclamation made by
Obama Administration Extends Final
Implementation Date for Healthcare Overhaul School districts and companies that employ more than 50 workers were grant-
ed a one-year extension before they are required to provide health insurance or face fines. As reported in the June edition of School Transportation News magazine, Jan.
1, 2014, was the deadline for offering health-care benefits to part-time workers, such as school bus drivers, who log 30 or more hours per week. Schools and com- panies would have had six or more months to either provide health care or cut employee hours. Te announcement on July 2 by the Obama Administration that extended the deadline to Jan. 1, 2015, buys more time for employers to determine how to proceed. To avoid increased benefits-related costs and meet budget constraints, many
school districts have already directed department heads to make 29 hours the maximum that part-timers, such as school bus drivers, can work. A workshop at the STN EXPO on July 20 broke down what the industry knows at this point in time regarding what the new law will mean for school districts. “Now is the time to begin analyzing your workforce,” said Mark Hinson, chief of
HR at Adams 12 Five Star Schools near Denver and workshop co-presenter, in the June edition of STN. “How do I staff and do so within my existing budget? Tat’s the talk they need to have with their budget and finance office. Tey’ve got to take the lead and identify those pockets of employees who need the part-time threshold.” At play is a balancing act between additional costs tied to benefits and the possibil-
ity of losing well-trained, veteran school-bus drivers who are highly skilled and certi- fied and the cost of hiring, training, certifying and background checking new hires.
26 School Transportation News August 2013
£ Dick Fischer, seen here during the 2011 STN EXPO, spent six decades in the industry.
President Nixon. Similar proclamations were made throughout the 1970s, and President Reagan proclaimed the first official National School Bus Safety Week for Oct. 4-10, 1981. Fischer said he will continue to publish a daily elec-
tronic newsletter for the industry. Meanwhile, Bob Rubin of Easy Way Safety Systems
retired in June after a 45-year career because of health reasons. Rubin,said he is focusing on his recovery from a strep cellulitis infection that resulted in a 104.5 fever and a 16-day hospital stay. “I think all of the forces within my body went to try
and combat the fever and that left me kind of drained,” he said, before adding, “I’m not ready to run away and hide.” Rubin said he plans, health willing, to attend the NAPT Summit this fall in Grand Rapids, Mich.
PLAY2WIN NETS ILLINOIS STUDENT TRANSPORTER FREE
TRIP TO STN EXPO Elizabeth “Charlie” McAlister, the trans-
portation supervisor for Springfield Public Schools serving Illinois’ state capital area, was randomly selected as the winner of the third annual “Play2Win” online trivia game promoting the STN EXPO. McAlister logged 50 entries into the drawing, which was held June 29, by answering as many questions correctly over the three-month span of the game. As the grand champion, McAlister
received an all-expenses-paid trip to the STN EXPO in Reno, Nev. This included round-trip airfare, hotel accomodations and conference registration, including a pre-conference seminar of her choice. In all, 286 readers participated in
“Play2Win” and answered 2,054 questions correctly. The game generated more than 10,000 website hits.
NEWS BRIEFS
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