Bus travels, Tour and transport

The introduction of a minimum travel distance for children to qualify to use Guernsey school buses has been delayed The environment department planned to start the restrictions from Monday, but has delayed it until the New Year.

The new measures means pupils who travel less than a mile to school will be barred from using the service The delay is to allow the department to consult further having only received responses from five schools to the proposed changes.

The move follows complaints from parents and schools that some children had been unable to catch the bus as seats were taken by those who lived much closer.

source:www.bbc.co.uk

Parents are determined to ensure that their children’s free school transport will be reinstated in October Bedford Borough Council decided to end the free school transport from Roxton to Alban Academy in Great Barford. Parents fought the proposal because they believe the route is dangerous but the council deemed it to be safe to walk with an adult the move will not save any money as the bus will continue to run and children can use it on a first come first saved basis if they pay.

Following the decision the Save Roxton School Bus parents group decided to write to the Queen and their concerns were passed to the Department for Education but the department’s reply said: “Funding for transport provision is delegated to local authorities and in these difficult economic times the Government expects them to take account of all local circumstances and issues and ensure that value for money can be achieved.

“Local authorities are best placed to determine how their resources are to be utilised and, whilst the Government expects them to take account of their responsibilities, it is not an area in which the Government can intervene.” parent Angie Foster said: “It’s really urgent that we can get our bus reinstated. We are worried that they will look at the bus not stopping in the village at all next year.”

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The GPS project, which will be fully operational next year, is part of the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s (ADEC) comprehensive plan to upgrade the transportation requirements in order to ensure the safety and security of children on their way to school and back home “This project has started already and it will be fully active next year. This year, we will complete the installation and testing of the system,” Khaled Al Ansari, Infrastructure and Facilities Division Manager at the ADEC, told Khaleej Times.

The upgrade also included a plan to install surveillance cameras in school buses. But for the pilot phase, eight government schools are being selected to fit three or four of their buses with cameras Al Ansari said the camera installations will be carried out during the first semester break starting on December 18, during which, the project will be closely monitored.

“The ADEC will observe how parents and students are reacting to the new initiative, and will point out the limitations encountered during that period, if any. If the project proves successful, surveillance cameras will be diversified to all public school buses across the emirate,” he stated the ADEC has started the overhaul of the transport system after several cases of neglect and incidents of young girls being subjected to abuse and molestation by unscrupulous school bus drivers and attendants were recorded across the country in separate accidents in 2008 and 2009, two girls, aged three and four, died in the Capital after they were locked inside the school bus for several hours under extreme heat.

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Beginning next school year, the Lake Wales Charter System will provide its own bus transportation for all of its students.

Previously, the charter system only provided bus transportation for three of its six schools: Bok Academy, Babson Park Elementary and Hillcrest Elementary.

"Transportation for us is very important because it gives us control over the bell schedule," said Robin Gibson, a Lake Wales lawyer who represents the charter schools.

Gibson said the system is considering changing its school hours to possibly a longer day.

"We haven't decided anything but we need the options for the length of the scheduling," Gibson said.

During the 2009-10 school year, it cost the Polk County School District $532,621 to provide bus service to charter schools. Of that amount, $338,938 was spent on the Lake Wales Charter System for Janie Howard Wilson Elementary, Polk Avenue Elementary and Lake Wales High School, said Rob Davis, the district's director of transportation operations.

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The Dougherty County School Board’s Transportation Committee on Friday heard a pitch from school system Transportation Director Kenneth Williams for eight new school buses and other assorted needs and wants of the department.

Williams informed the committee that the state of Georgia had issued $50 million in bonds to purchase more than 600 new buses statewide.

Dougherty County, he said, has been allotted eight buses in the bond issue, for which the state would chip in $76,292 per bus. The county would be on the hook for the remaining total balance of $189,826.
The buses are all Internationals. Here is a list of the vehicles with the cost of each to the county:

One 48 passenger ($5,385)

One 48 passenger with lift ($13,773)

One 72 passenger ($10,683)

Five 84 passenger, rear engine ($31,997)

“I selected the Internationals because of maintenance,” Williams told the committee. “They (International) have a service center off Blaylock, and that would keep us from having to drive them to Macon for major service.”

The transportation committee (David Maschke, Carol Tharin and Milton Griffin) voted unanimously to send the proposal to the full board for further consideration.

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Beginning next school year, the Lake Wales Charter System will provide its own bus transportation for all of its students.

Previously, the charter system only provided bus transportation for three of its six schools: Bok Academy, Babson Park Elementary and Hillcrest Elementary.

"Transportation for us is very important because it gives us control over the bell schedule," said Robin Gibson, a Lake Wales lawyer who represents the charter schools.

Gibson said the system is considering changing its school hours to possibly a longer day.

"We haven't decided anything but we need the options for the length of the scheduling," Gibson said.

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Just two weeks after a little girl was killed after trying to get on her school bus in north Iowa, a community hundreds of miles away is rallying together to make sure it doesn't happen to any other children.

"I'm teaching a class on school bus safety," said Susan Powell, an Early Childhood Family Education Teacher.

So that what happened to seven-year-old Kadyn Halvorsen in Iowa, doesn't happen again.

"Oh my gosh, losing a child is one of the most horrible things on the planet," said Powell.

Kadyn was hit by a pick-up truck two weeks ago, while crossing the street to board her bus.

"I really wish that people could pay attention and know the rules of the road," said Powell.

But until that happens, Susan Powell is going to focus on children entering kindergarten, to make sure they have all the tools they need to stay safe.

"They need to watch and listen and they need to pay attention to the bus driver because if they are getting ready to cross the street, and for some reason the bus driver sees in their mirror that a car is not stopping, the bus driver will beep their horn and that tells the children - freeze! Stop!,"said Powell.

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Some Ohio lawmakers think advertising on the outsides of school buses would help struggling school districts bolster their budgets.

Bipartisan bills introduced in the Ohio Legislature would let schools sell ad space on their buses. Campaign advertising would not be allowed, nor would ads for tobacco, alcohol, gambling, anything sexual.

Senate sponsor Joe Schiavoni tells The Advocate of Newark that schools superintendents need ways to make up for lost government funding. He says if the ads help buy supplies or keep teachers on the payroll, it's a good thing.

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The New York Association for Pupil Transportation is calling for state action on proposed laws to increase penalties for passing stopped school buses.

The organization found in a study that drivers illegally pass a stopped school bus more than 50,000 times a day. Several children have been killed over the past few years by drivers passing buses illegally, and 75 kids were reported injured by vehicles that had passed their buses between 2002 and 2007.

Assemblyman Peter Rivera has proposed a bill authorizing the placement of video cameras on school buses to record motorist violations, with images to be used as evidence in prosecution of offenders. The bill also makes it a felony of criminally negligent homicide when a child is killed by a driver passing a stopped school bus.

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Even though the transport department has set the ball rolling for the implementation of the long-delayed school bus policy, private operators, who own almost 90% of school buses in the city, have complained that several changes mandated by the policy will unduly add to their financial burden.

Some of them, claims the association of bus operators, are needless, and even risky for the school children.

Talking to DNA on Friday after the first meeting of stakeholders — school principals and bus operators — organised by the transport department, Anil Garg, president of school bus operators’ association, said, “About 70% of recommendations in the policy are acceptable to us. The government should revise the rest as they are needless, impractical and add to our burden.” This resistance could mean a further delay in the implementation of the policy.

According to Garg, 3,340 vehicles like Maruti Omnis, Tata Sumos, Qualis etc, illegally ferry students, while 2,200 dedicated buses are run by school managements and private operators. Another 4,500 operate as both company and school buses.

Outlining his argument, Garg said, “Our expenses will double in implementing the policy recommendations. Until now, we needed only a driver and a male attendant, but now we will have to also hire a lady attendant for the girls.”

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A bus driver in North Carolina is being hailed a hero after convincing a gun-wielding seventh grader to hand over his loaded gun during a terrifying bus ride.

The 12-year-old boy tried to hijack the school bus to Washington so he could shoot government officials, witnesses told ABC News Charlotte affiliate WSOC-TV.

Driver Evans Okoduwa said today that while was scared during Monday's incident he knew that if he didn't get the child to drop his weapon he "could have been shot."

"I was driving the bus approaching one of the student's stops when he stood and approached me with a gun in his hand," said Okoduwa.

"I got very scared and I thought he immediately was going to use it on me," said the driver. "But after he had stopped and I began to try to get into conversation with him I was a little calmer and said a little prayer in my heart."

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The state of emergency that was issued for Henderson County on Monday due to rising flood waters does not necessarily mean that classes in the local school district will be canceled today.

"The state of emergency declared on the roads may not be the same ones that our buses travel," said Henderson County Schools Superintendent Tom Richey.

"The law says that if there's water running over a road, we can't run on it. We observe that. We are not going to err at all in terms of the children's safety."

Yet early Monday night, it was too soon to say whether school would be called off today.

Richey said that school officials would drive the roads Monday night and early this morning to determine whether classes should be called off.

What was certain, however, was that the flood waters are definitely affecting the transportation of students.

"We are impacted pretty greatly," said Keegan O'Daniel, director of transportation.

That means that some roads that start out dry can quickly move to being flooded, and vice versa.

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State lawmakers have tweaked legislation that would lift the cap on the number of charter schools allowed, but opponents remain wary.

Backers of Senate Bill 8 say it would increase educational opportunities for children since charter schools are intended to provide innovative learning options, free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools.

“We need to provide more options under the public education umbrella,” Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Reform in North Carolina, said. “Far too many families in our state and far too many families in Rowan-Salisbury have only one option.”

There are currently 99 charter schools in 47 of the state’s 100 counties.

Allison, who graduated from A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis, said the success that many of those charter schools are experiencing cannot be replicated because of the cap, and more than 20,000 students statewide are on waiting lists for charter schools.

“The vast majority of North Carolina does not have a charter school,” he said. “It’s not that public charter schools are more superior, but if we have more options than children have a better chance at getting a quality education.”

But opponents say the bill, which also seeks to clarify the current funding formula, could be detrimental to public school funding.

“I think this would pretty much be a dagger in the heart of public education,” Dr. Jim Emerson, chairman of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, said.

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Drastic times have called for drastic measures and one of the proposals to cut is school bus service for all except special needs students.

Aiea Elementary School is one of the biggest proponents of school buses. More than 250 students or 80 percent of the school use the service. It's even got a school bus on the mural.

"We enjoy having the school bus, it really does help," said Kate O'Malley, Aiea Elementary School Principal.

Many of the kids take it to and from public housing. If school bus service was cut more students would have to walk over a footbridge crossing Kamehameha Highway and Moanalua Road. It's a walk that could be unsafe for young students.

"Then you get into philosophical discussions of is it the school systems responsibility to get students to school or is it parental responsibility that doesn't have an answer there are a variety of perspectives," said Randy Moore, Assistant Superintendent.

Safety aside bus drivers say get used to seeing more traffic and congestion without school buses.

"Think about beat the school jam. In one day traffic goes from mild to congested and that's with only public schools opening up. You have a lot of parents taking kids to school because of emotional issues or whatever so that's the most congested day you're going to get, and that is what it would be like without school busses," said Ken LeVasseur, Bus Driver and Researcher

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