School Board Hears Reports On NMS Roof,

Education Assistants, Bus Incident

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Board of Education heard multiple reports at its September 20 meeting, including an update on the Newtown Middle School roof project, a report by the superintendent on education assistants, and the bus contract recently awarded to All-Star Transportation.

Board of Education Chair William Hart said work on the school district’s five-year contract set to begin at the end of June with All-Star Transportation is continuing, with attorneys for the district and transportation company finalizing specifics. Mr Hart said the final document should come before the school board for approval in the coming weeks.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson reported to the board the NMS roof project is expected to be “wrapped up” in the next couple weeks.

“What I am impressed with is how thorough they are,” said Dr Robinson, before mentioning Silktown Roofing of Manchester and New Britain-based Kaestle Boos Associates’ “exceptional” attention to the project.

Dr Robinson also gave a report, following requests previously by board Vice Chair Debbie Leidlein for further information, on the number of education assistants affected by the decrease in nonspecial education assistant hours in the 2011-12 school budget. At the end of the 2010-11 school year, Dr Robinson said, there were 156 education assistants in the district, and, following the reduction in hours, there were 131 at the start of the 2011-12 school year.

The superintendent also listed reasons for how the 156 education assistants became 131: eight education assistants left the district, four left the education assistant union and took other positions in the district, 16 were displaced or “chose to apply for other positions and were chosen for those positions,” one displaced education assistant was offered another position but refused it along with any other position in the district, and one displaced education assistant has yet to find a new position.

The number of education assistants in the district, Dr Robinson said to Ms Leidlein, continues to change.

“There were at least 26 open [education assistant] positions posted in the last five to six weeks,” said Dr Robinson. “These positions were open and available to all [education assistants].”

When questioned by Ms Leidlein, Dr Robinson said she did not know how many of the 131 education assistants are associated with special education. Dr Robinson could also not supply Ms Leidlein with the number of education assistants affected at each of the schools.

Asleep On The Bus

Dr Robinson also read from a report prepared by school district Director of Human Resources Joan Libby regarding a private school kindergarten student who was found asleep on the school bus when the owner-operator of the bus completed the final afternoon run of September 9.

Dr Robinson told the school board, owner-operator LeReine Frampton discovered the child, around 4:10 in the afternoon, situated in a blind spot behind the bus driver.

Multiple occurrences that afternoon, according to the superintendent, led to the child missing the bus stop and sleeping through Ms Frampton’s remaining bus route. That day was the child’s first ride on the bus, Ms Frampton had never met the student before, the bus camera was down and awaiting repair, seeing no students remaining on the bus Ms Frampton did not finish her run and continued on to Middle Gate Elementary school for her last run of the day, on arrival at Middle Gate students were immediately put on the bus, not allowing Ms Frampton to complete a walkthrough of the bus before her final run, and instead of calling the district’s transportation department, the child’s babysitter contacted the school, which was closed by the time the call was placed.

“So this is [Ms Libby’s] investigation into what happened that Friday afternoon,” said Dr Robinson.

Another complication, Dr Robinson said, is Ms Frampton typically provides every family on her bus routes with her personal cellphone number. Due to Tropical Storm Irene, however, Ms Frampton was unable to contact each family before school began.

When Ms Frampton discovered the child, she brought her home and spoke with the parents, explaining the situation.

Dr Robinson said the issues now revolve around not having the camera working on the bus during the incident and the fact the bus run was not completed, which, she said, gives the school board the right to withhold payment for that afternoon’s run.

Board of Education Chair William Hart said to him the issue was not to attack the individual owner-operator, but to find a way to prevent such a situation from happening in the future.

“I feel assured that this will never happen on her bus again,” said Dr Robinson.

Mr Hart also suggested reminders should go out to all bus drivers in the district regarding the importance of completing bus routes, and to teachers and district staff about the importance of allowing bus drivers the time to walk their bus between runs.

Also during the meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda and Newtown High School Principal Charles Dumais gave reports on the district’s test results on the Connecticut Mastery Test, the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, and Advanced Placement test results. To hear the report and full audio of the board’s Tuesday meeting visit www.newtownbee.com.