INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS In Brief
PUT IT DOWN Georgia is the latest of nearly 30 states
to ban texting while driving. As of July 1, it is now illegal for anyone to read, type or send a text message while driving, in- cluding while being stopped at red lights or awaiting an arrow in a turn lane. A vio- lation can cost up to $100 for adults. Tis now puts all drivers on par with school bus drivers, who were already banned from texting while driving.
FLYING SOUTH Blue Bird Corporation is closing its Type
As world leaders prepared to meet in Canada for the G20 global economy summit in late June, Toronto school boards closed some schools and cancelled all school bus transportation due to concerns about the major traffic congestion that would result.
SHOW AND TELL Charlene Majors of Gwinnett County
Public Schools in Lawrenceville, Ga., was selected in June as the winner of a naming contest for the 2011 National Conference on Transporting Students with Disabilities and Preschoolers in Kansas City for her theme submission, “Show Me!” “What better way to have a conference
than to show me: show me better ways, safer ways, the best possible way we can transport students with disabilities and preschoolers,” said Majors, a training spe- cialist for the school district northeast of Atlanta and a member of the Georgia As- sociation for Pupil Transportation special needs committee. She’s also been a presenter at the past
two national special needs transportation conferences. When she hasn’t been hold- ing class, she said she makes sure to sit in on other workshops because of the great learning opportunities they provide both her and others back home who are unable to attend. “One thing I do is make a point to bring
the information back. We do a mini-ses- sion at our one-day state conference and report on the key things we learned,” Ma- jors added.
For her winning submission, Majors re-
ceives free conference registration for next year’s 20th annual national conference, which is scheduled for March 11-16.
SHOW...AND TAKE Missouri is one of many states with
strict balanced budget requirements, and school busing will take the brunt of wide-scale cuts designed to dig the state out of the red. Gov. Jay Nixon responded to additional, dismal economic forecasts by submitting an FY 2011 budget that deducts an additional $301 million on top of the already $300 million in cuts made by the state legislature earlier this year. School transportation topped the list of programs being affected at $70 million, which reduces the funding avail- able to school districts for busing regular education students during the 2010-2011 school year by nearly half. Dr. Roger Dorson, coordinator of school
administrative services at the Missouri De- partment of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the state budget for school busing now rests at about $83 million from its original figure of nearly $153 million. Tis means many districts are either cut- ting back or eliminating services altogether.
14 School Transportation News Magazine August 2010
C Vision school bus assembly line in Lafay- ette, Ga., in favor of centralizing all large bus production at its Fort Valley head- quarters, the company announced in June. Te Lafayette plant has been in op-
eration since 1988. Blue Bird relocated its fabrication operation to Fort Valley in 2008, and the company said in a statement that the plant now has the capacity to absorb all current and future Type C production. However, Blue Bird has reduced its
workforce at Fort Valley over the past year or so and continues to. Just recently, the marketing department was further down- sized with the departure of Director of Marketing Ron Smith.
NOT SO FAST, IRS In early June, Treasury Secretary Timo-
thy Geithner sent a letter to members of Congress that outlines his support of the federal fuel tax exemption for small school buses. Te overall federal fuel tax exemp- tion has come under scrutiny over the past couple of years as the federal highway fund has teetered on the point of insolvency, es- pecially as the federal transportation bill approaches its eighth month of extensions because Congress was unable to reautho- rize SAFETEA-LU last fall. Te letter “promised that the IRS would
be issuing new guidance on the matter soon and promised to address the concern with IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.” Te letter was forwarded to House Ways and Means staff, and NSTA was seeking a meeting with treasury tax policy staff to ensure that guidance is clear.
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