By Laura

May 2, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this

I agree that students on some routes don’t get picked up everyday, but I think you will find that the routes that are regularly missed have a high number of behavior issues. I’m not saying that it is right- but that it is an issue. Some schools have few problems with buses not showing up, others have a huge problem. Maybe someone needs to find out why. As to the recommendation that they consider eliminating busing to save money-well, isn’t that a little like shooting themselves in the foot? DPS already has a huge problem with a low graduation rate. What do the “experts” think will happen if they drop high school busing? When the consulting firm made some of the recommendations it is clear that they were made only in response to financial considerations without any thought to what the impact would be. As to the comment that there aren’t too many administrators, what about the report that Dayton Daily News did recently that showed they did have a higher number of administrators compared to other local districts? With regards to the comment that administrators were in the buildings more frequently than comparable districts, where did they get the information? Did they just look at someones “schedule” or planner and assume it was correct and implemented as presented? Or did they take the time to check and see if they actually arrived at their “intended” destinations?

By Concerned Mom of 3

May 1, 2008 11:25 PM | Link to this

My family has had a lot of negative experiences with Dayton Public School’s Transportation Department. The sub-standard service would not be tolerated in the suburbs… Here are a few examples… Busses simply not showing up for an entire route because there are no substitute drivers to cover the all the routes that people call off for. Drivers “dropping a stop” because they are running late. Special education busses running with no aide for weeks at a time. (The bus carries Emotionally Disturbed kids AND Multi-Handicapped kids! Imagine what an emergency evacuation would look like with a full bus of really involved handicapped kids and only one responsible adult!!!) Here is one of my favorites- Bus drivers talking on their cell phones while driving a bus full of students! Students listening to rap music on the way to school. (I do not allow listening to rap music at home. My daughter knows all the words to Soldier Boy- and she regularly requests to switch the radio station to 102.9! When I asked her where she hears that kind of music, she informed me she listens to it on the radio- every morning- on the way to school!) The worst incident of all time was when my hired help did not make it to my house in time to receive my handicapped son off the bus- the driver dropped him off with a neighbor who had no clue how to care for him! Thank God my son didn’t have a seizure! (And THANK GOD the neighbor wasn’t a child molester!) My friends in the suburbs can’t believe the crap that goes on. They think I am joking when I tell them this stuff. There are some good people in the transportation department… but there are also some really stupid people out there. They would be fired if they were driving in the suburbs. I don’t know what the solution to the myriad of problems would be, but I can say that the transportation deparment has never bent over backwards to re-route a bus for my kids. The one time they did, a mediator from the State had to instruct them that it was the law- and they had to do it. (That time, it had to do with providing services in the least restrictive environment rather than just shipping my kid off to the handicapped school.) I could go on and on… but I won’t. Well, at least not anymore…

By Avoice

May 1, 2008 10:08 PM | Link to this

Yes Caroline and Laura, you are both correct. To the people in the field (teachers) this report was written without any first-hand knowledge of the actual conditions inside a DPS classroom. I am sure that this useless information was gained mostly via surveys where job security heavily influenced the outcome. Only time you see any suits in the building is when there is a photo op or legal issue. But why should this surprise anyone? After all, you have a superintendent that has assured local media that he is not interested in another job. Same exact promise that James Williams and Franklin Smith made to the community that Dayton is �home.� (The sad thing is that the local media actually believes these people when they state it.) Only people that loose are Dayton kids, again.

By Mary

May 1, 2008 6:33 PM | Link to this

It would be interesting to see what was said,if anything, about the costs of busing student athletes, bands, cheerleaders, drill teams, etc to sporting events after school, on weekends, and during school breaks. So many districts cut busing to school but continue to support afterschool activities with overtime bus drivers, and I would assume some significant costs in insurance, fuel, and wear and tear on buses.

By Barb

May 1, 2008 5:03 PM | Link to this

Scott when getting back with the information would it be possible to give us more idea of who this company is? Who funded the study? Who is it they reported back to? What are the questions that were asked and to whom were the questions asked? What is considered an administrator? Are department heads counted? How often are the administrators in the buildings, which buildings? Are they there when students are there because I know as a teacher I only see a quick walk through a couple of times a year. Would a private company keep students on the buses or would going to a private company hurt attendance when students were put off the buses, or students were late getting to their buses. Now unfortunately our bus service has to get many of these students because if not parents would keep the child home. I would like to see in depth information and the whole study and recommendations published. Perhaps the district will do this in many of the mailings they do to all residents because I feel the public has every right to all of the information not just snippets.

By Kevin

May 1, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this

I moved to the Dayton Area from a school system that had NO buses. The children did not walk, parents had to take them to school. The sad fact is that these children felt they were not important enough for buses and many did not even bother to go to school on the days when it was snowy (the children that had working parents and had to walk). The idea that saving money by cutting buses is stupid. First it increases the number of days children miss school, second this causes the schools to lose money because they have less students attending. Trust me, I have been there. Take the money from the bean counters who did the stupid study and from worthless superintendents!

By laura

May 1, 2008 3:40 PM | Link to this

I fail to see how outsourcing busing will solve the problems listed. I don’t think anyone disagrees that the buses aren’t full but when a system is given the requirements DPS has, I can’t imagine any private organiztion could do better. Teachers generally agree that too often parents make unreasonable demands and get their way, but at the same time, too many citizens say the district isn’t accommodating enough. The problem is that DPS is expected to be everything to everyone. If most of these parents who make demands went to a suburban school, they wouldn’t get these accommodations. Suburban schools have their rules and parents are expected to live with it. Maybe sometimes, DPS parents need to learn to live with things that they don’t like. Instead of outsourcing, maybe students need to simply be assigned a school within the closest distance to their home and that is where they go. Period. They don’t have the option of transferring just because someone made them mad. You can’t do that in a suburban school. As far as not enough administrators, I’d like to see some real numbers and some real job descriptions. That has to be a huge joke. When the report says that the administrators are in the buildings more than in other districts, again, it must be a joke. I have friends who teach in suburban districts and their superintendents are in their buildings. Most know their teachers on sight, if not by name. They know their assistants. Most teachers in Dayton don’t know who the assistants are, or what they do- because there are so many of them and their job titles keep changing with the wind. As for absenteeism- maybe if there were more discipline on the buses the bus drivers wouldn’t call in sick all the time. DPS is so afraid of losing students to the suburbs. I say let them go- they’ll be back when they don’t get people to bend over backwards for them the way everyone is expected to do in DPS.

By Caroline

May 1, 2008 3:02 PM | Link to this

Improvements since 2002??? All I’ve seen is the district going more and more and more downhill. Maybe there is an improvement from a bookkeeping standpoint, but from a classroom standpoint, not at all. That’s funny that she said that administrators are in buildings more.

By dayton driver

May 1, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this

Of course everyone knew she would recommend outsourcing our transportation department. The evergreen group is a corporate lackey who is in the business of robbing the public to enrich their corporacratic friends. Google Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” for what this is really all about. It is a trend that has led to the decimation of the middle class and to the decimation of America. Why do these people hate America so much? While I agree that the transportation department bends backwards and sends buses in every direction at almost any request in order to get kids to school, they interviewed ZERO actual bus drivers for their report folks. What does that tell you? Secondly, what is said about the absolute massive labyrinth of routes to cover in order to comply with the law of providing transportation for charter Schools. Can you imagine for one second what it’s like to add 40 some odd charter schools to the mix? Additionally, all of those charter school kids can potentially come from any area of the city. It’s the requirements of the system put in by corporate interests via right-wing politicians - requirements they know will doom the public school system, that has enabled this mass robbery of the public’s resources. It’s how the right-wing has enriched itself - demonize the public sphere as dyfunctional in order to take over it’s operations, and massive tax income. It’s criminal on a grand scale and these people need to be imprisoned, not listened to. Lastly, do we really need companies who can’t even keep felons and drunks off of their driver roles? Laidlaw and First Student have had problems with this. Keep public school busing public!