Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak gave high marks to the opening of school on Thursday, Aug. 31, despite some “blips in the road with busing,” thanking public safety personnel for participating in what has become their tradition of meeting incoming students at the schools for high-fives and smiles.
“The positivity from our emergency service workers is outstanding and I can’t thank them enough,” he reported to the School Committee at its Wednesday, Sept. 13 meeting.
New guidelines for buses went into effect this school year, and the Safety Committee met on Sept. 1 to review “each and every concern,” Szymaniak said, noting that panel meets annually.
“When parents have concerns around transportation, we gather the Safety Committee,” Szymaniak said. “It always includes public safety [officials], but this year, it included the superintendent, assistant superintendent, our building-level principals, the chair of the School Committee, and our two school resource officers, as well as our transportation director, her assistant and two members from First Student.”
Every complaint or busing issue was reviewed, Szymaniak repeated, changing or modifying some guidelines and not others. Both he and Transportation Director Karen Villanueva followed the buses around town to ensure the stops were safe.
“I ventured out and took some videos of some of the major concerns and I will be taking a couple of concerns back to the safety team,” Szymaniak said. He anticipated meeting with the Safety Committee again on Friday, Sept. 15 to make modifications based on his observations. “I have two public safety officers who travel the road, and we take it from an educational perspective, from a bus perspective and they take it from a safety perspective, and when they make recommendations or say that those stops are safe, we as a committee have to go on what they say.”
Szymaniak stipulated that some people are not happy with the decisions made, but he said he will review what he feels “might be debatable with the safety team.”
Additional modifications may be made to some stops when it snows, he said. “Even on sidewalks, if we’ve had heavy snow, we’ve had special bus pickups where parents can drop off their kids in certain areas for [safer] bus pickups,” he said.
During the course of the winter, buses will also stop to pick up students who are walking in the snow.
“I’m confident with the safety team’s decisions, although I looked at something today and I’m going to bring something back to the safety team,” he said. “I think we’re in a good spot with times. I haven’t heard many complaints about times in my travels.”
Szymaniak did hear, on a hot day, that it was hot on the buses and some drivers had the windows up, but a parent clarified on social media that the windows were not up and that someone was reposting incorrect information they had seen or heard.
Parents are encouraged to call the Transportation office at 781-618-7491 from 6:15 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the office is staffed.
“When the last bus is done, I have somebody on the phone,” he said.
School Committee member Hillary Kniffen noted that there is still a problem with motorists passing stopped buses, as email traffic has shown that to be a concern or something people have seen happen.
“Is there a way that we can get more police presence – more visual public safety out in the morning on these routed [such as routes 14, 18, 27 and 58] roads?” she asked. “People who live in these towns aren’t the ones we’re worried about.”
She suggested a safety sign such as those used in work zones might be something to remind people of the safety issues because the bus stops are new this year.
Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said it’s usually the overlap of the night shift officers to the day shift where police presence is not as available for school bus safety as they could be.
“We can ask them to be on those high-visibility roads because it is new for everybody,” he said.
“Nobody’s going to be happy with all the solutions,” Chair Beth Stafford said.
Committee member Fred Small brought up stop sign cameras as a possible deterrent, but he also said speed indicator signs also come equipped with cameras that transmit via cellular signal back to the police stations so they know when someone is speeding.
“You’d almost think they’d know when someone is going around a bus,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’d love to see a police presence and I hope they throw the book at anyone who goes around a school bus like that.”
“We all know this is happening,” Stafford said. “It’s an ongoing situation. It’s awful.”
Szymaniak said the district’s legislators have reported that regional transportation reimbursement, meanwhile, has been level-funded for the third year at 79.5 percent, but Committee member Fred Small took issue with that.
“It’s time to dig up the votes,” Small said.
With an extra $2 million infused in regional transportation, Szymaniak said Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, calculated that W-H could expect a reimbursement rate of between 85 and 90 percent this coming year.
Business Manager John Stanbrook said Cherry sheet figures show revenues up $620,825 over last year and assessments are up by $308,444 for a total increase of $3122,381 – or 1.25 percent.
However, the district receive $21.799 on revenue and an additional assessment of $220,000 over what was voted – down $242,391, “which is almost the entire amount of regional transportation,” he said. “We overbudgeted actual costs … and the reimbursements will be at what the commonwealth decides to give us.”