School Board Gets An Update On Transportation Issues

By Eliza Hallabeck

Roughly four weeks into the 2012-13 school year, the Board of Education received a written update from All-Star Transportation at its meeting September 18.

While a representative from the company, which oversees the largest portion of the bus routes in town, could not attend the meeting, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson explained a written report that was submitted and she and school district Business Director Ronald Bienkowski answered some questions posed by the board on the topic.

“As we start week four, times have improved dramatically from week one,” read the report shared during the meeting. “The phone calls are minimal and we are now able to go about our business of dealing with issues in a timely manner. Tier 1 morning buses are arriving at [Newtown High School/Newtown Middle School] by 7:10 am for [a] 7:20 am start, and Tier 1 afternoon buses are departing promptly as planned.”

Dr Robinson noted for the school board, between reading from All-Star’s report, that in her four years as Newtown’s superintendent, she has only once not received complaints weeks into the school year regarding transportation, and that was last year. Following the wake of a hurricane, Dr Robinson said no one complained.

The report continues, “Tier 2 morning buses are close to plan for [St Rose of Lima School] with buses dropping off between 7:45 am to 7:59 am and dropping off at [Reed Intermediate School] between 8 am to 8:12 am. We are adding three Reed/St Rose routes on Friday, September 21, which will fix five to six late buses.”

It was the Tier 2 routes that brought up the most questions from school board members on Tuesday night. Vice Chair Laura Roche said she has been at the school monitoring bus arrival times and the times when students are allowed off their buses. Tuesday morning, Ms Roche said, one bus arrived as early as 7:36 am, and seven buses were parked with students waiting to be let off to enter the school at 8 am, when they were allowed off. Following the first round of drop offs, buses continued to arrive. The last student, Ms Roche said, entered the school at 8:15 am, ten minutes after the school’s homeroom begins.

Tier 2, Chair Debbie Leidlein said, is a major concern, because students are arriving after their home room time starts. Board member John Vouros said the arrival time at Reed is unacceptable.

“They need to be at school so they are in homeroom at 8:05,” said Mr Vouros.

Dr Robinson said the arrival times are an improvement, and said the goal is to have students at the school by 8:05 am.

“The buses have never arrived this early at Reed,” said Dr Robinson.

Ms Roche later responded during public participation saying last year she was told buses arriving late at Reed was an owner-operator issue.

Noting the school district has spent the last four years adding 20 minutes to the school day, Ms Roche said earlier having buses arrive late sets back that effort.

Mr Vouros also said he liked seeing a mention in the report that the former owner-operators working for All-Star have been helpful. For Mr Vouros having Joan Baumgart, a former owner-operator, working as All-Star’s dispatcher is invaluable. Every complaint he has forward to Ms Baumgart has been responded to within 24 hours, he said.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how comforting, at least for me, it is to have her there,” Mr Vouros said.

By the end of the discussion on the report, Mr Bienkowski said he was writing a draft of a letter that will be sent to All-Star asking for further information on a number of questions the school board wants further clarification or updates on. One of those issues is an update on a 77-passenger school bus on a Hawley Elementary School route dropping students off after school at the Children’s Adventure Center on the road rather than the in the center’s parking lot.

Dr Robinson said All-Star became aware of the Children’s Adventure Center’s stop the day before school began, and it is not the practice of the school district to transport students to daycare centers outside of a school’s district. The stop, Dr Robinson explained, became a practice overtime with an owner-operator dropping students off there. Since the complaint about the Children’s Adventure Center drop-off procedure came before the board during its last meeting, September 4, Dr Robinson said All-Star has visited the site to inspect whether the 77-passenger bus assigned to the route can turn around in the building’s parking lot.

“It absolutely cannot,” Dr Robinson said. “It is a dangerous situation.”

During public participation Carey Schierloh, a former owner-operator, and former first selectman Joe Borst both spoke regarding the drop-off situation at the Children’s Adventure Center. Ms Schierloh noted changing the 77-passenger bus to a 47-passenger bus would be possible considering the bus to the center, from her information, has 21 students on it.

“I think we should stop playing games with this,” said Mr Borst, noting his past experience of driving a bus for four years, “and we should take care of the kids.”

Mr Borst said he has seen medium-sized buses in the center’s parking lot.

“I want something about this done immediately or I will raise hell,” Mr Borst said.

Dr Robinson also said All-Star’s director of safety has been working on reports regarding bus stop requests and issues, and listed four accidents since the start of the school year. Two accidents occurred while buses were backing up, with no physical damage and no passengers on board. During one accident a bus took a turn and brushed a tree with minor damage, and the last accident was a bus hit a fence while backing up. Two of the four accidents were the same driver, and Dr Robinson read from All-Star’s report that driver no longer works for the company.