“We’re hiring him to come in to put another set of eyes on the operation. He’s kind of the advocate for the school district,” Neavin said. He added that part of Japikse’s responsibilities will be to make sure the school bus transportation company that the district hired to transport its students, is compliant with all the laws regarding transportation, including bus inspections and routing procedures.
The district’s school bus transportation company First Student, Inc. in Cincinnati, will be paying money towards the district’s cost of hiring Japikse, according to Neavin.
Japikse’s hiring and the hiring of the safety monitors comes after a Notice of Default letter that Neavin sent to Scott Turney, First Student’s area general manager.
The letter, dated Oct. 15, stated the problems the district has had with First Student’s services.
In the notice, Neavin asked for a written safety remediation plan “to address and ameliorate this continuing and unacceptable safety problem, including any adjustments to FSI’s current safety program.”
Neavin also said in the notice that the district had continuing issues with FSI’s on-time performance and various missed runs during this school year.
First Student was given 30 days to address the issues brought up by the district.
Japikse will oversee First Student’s plan to improve their services. Neavin said he will oversee “everything from their training of bus drivers, making sure the bus drivers are certified and making sure they are doing their safety training.”
“We’re working in partnership with the school district,” Maurice Harris, director of corporate communications for First Student, said. “At present, they have proposed the engagement of Pete to conduct a supplemental audit and we’re working with them to define the specific terms of the engagement.”
In addition to Japikse, district officials are hoping to hire up to six safety monitors, who will be paid $12 to $15 an hour.
These monitors will do bus ride-alongs and observe what the bus drivers are doing and what’s happening outside of the bus.
“I wanted the parents to know that we have someone riding on these buses from the district that’s keeping an eye on things,” Neavin said. “We may need these folks for some other things. For example, to help our new safety director do evaluations of our buildings. So, these are people that we can hire on an hourly consultant basis to address any safety concerns we have throughout the district.”
The district prefers to fill the safety monitor positions with retired teachers, retired police officers or retired transportation directors, but whoever applies for the temporary positions must submit to a criminal background check.
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