FIRST TAKE Five W’s and H WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY
for the Transporting Students with Disabilities & Preschoolers Conference in Nashville, Tenn., last month. Boston Public Schools had just presented a balanced budget proposal at the expense of school bus routes
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for at least 4,500 of the district’s seventh- and eighth-grade students. Te displaced school bus riders, as well as any sixth graders who volunteered, would reportedly qualify for Metro bus passes. But there are the obvious concerns among parents and educators alike of stranger danger and the mainstreaming of 12- and 13-year- olds onto the city bus along with the general public. Yet more than simply student safety is on the line. According to the Boston Globe, the plan to cut $107 million from the total budget would affect 250 teachers,
classroom aides and “other school-based positions.” After all, while someone has to teach these kids, others have to drive the buses, maintain routes and manage the operations necessary to get these kids to and from school. Te school district has its hands full, needing to balance an appropriations increase from Mayor Martin Walsh
that falls short of offsetting $100 million in increased costs amid decreased tax revenue. At the same time, Super- intendent John McDonough said dropout rates have increased to the highest levels since the late 1970s. Furthermore, Boston Public Schools contracts its transportation department, and as with teachers there is a union. Tere are employment stipulations at play to guarantee jobs for the term of the contract, but it was only in October when 300 Boston school bus drivers staged a surprise strike. Among the reasons was an allegation of a “slash and burn” policy when it comes to making staffing changes. One argument often heard in favor of reducing transportation is that busing, along with other auxiliary
services, sometimes must be sacrificed for the greater good of the classroom. But as one opposing Boston school board member pointed out, this could indeed negatively impact class attendance and tardiness — not to mention the negative employment impact the cuts could have.
Know the elemental questions you need to ask and how to best answer them when it comes to your operations...
Just one of the benefits of school busing is getting kids to school ready to learn, as championed by the
American School Bus Council. But, by ASBC’s own estimates, the industry also employees around 700,000 people. Peter Cookson, who heads the Equity in Education project at the American Institute of Research, and is a keynote presenter at the STN EXPO this summer, agreed on the role played by the yellow bus and its drivers and other staff, what he termed as “one of the hardest jobs in America” because of all the respon- sibilities. He told me that the yellow school bus and those who drive, maintain and manage them are vital to ensuring a quality public education. Still, we continue to see cut after cut after cut made to transportation services and, potentially, to jobs.
In Cookson’s opinion, cutting transportation to save dollars for the classroom is an illogical argument. He called the decision for more teachers vs. bus drivers “a false choice.” “I once taught at a rural school,” he said. “School buses are not just getting students to school but getting them into the larger world. School buses are the lifeblood of the school system.” But the arteries are increasingly clogged with the plaque of budget cuts and economic uncertainty. Tis month, several administrator-level topics are covered that speak to how school districts are attempting to keep their transportation services moving forward despite the myriad challenges, ranging from budgets, to managing risk and liability, to dealing with personnel. Contracting out may or may not be the answer. Know the elemental questions you need to ask and how to best answer them when it comes to your opera-
tions, and what the district, students, their parents, teachers and you and your own staff need to help make the most informed decision for the welfare of all.
ho. What. Where. When. Why. How. We learned these six important words when in kindergarten, with the promise that few,
if any others, would be more necessary to our future vocabulary and development, especial- ly if one became, say, a journalist. I was reminded of this lesson as I was preparing to leave
10 School Transportation News April 2014
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