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School Bus Program's Test Drive Off Course

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By MARILYN BROWN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

TAMPA - Nearly eight weeks into the school year, a pilot program in south Hillsborough designed to eliminate late school buses and become more efficient has flopped in both regards.

The program was rolled out quickly with little input from drivers and may be headed for a slowdown in expanding districtwide, officials said Wednesday.

Before the school year started, many parents in south Hillsborough were told that their children would have to walk farther to bus stops and be dropped at the same stop each day so buses could get to school on time.

The plan was slated to expand across the county in August. Wednesday, Jack Davis, the district's chief officer of information and technology, said that plan likely will be delayed and may be rolled out in stages.

"I believe we'll see a modification," Davis said. "There needs to be some form of reward when you ask someone to sacrifice."

Tuesday night, Hillsborough School Board members bluntly told Superintendent MaryEllen Elia to get the children to school on time, even if it requires opening some middle schools later.

That would be yet another burden on parents, some bus drivers and officials said Wednesday, and it may not solve the problem.

"There's so much they need to revise," said Sue Murray, one of the south county bus drivers who met with district officials Wednesday morning. If middle school opening times are revised, "There's going to parents up in arms."

Both teachers and parents already adjusted schedules to start middle schools 15 minutes earlier.

Murray and other drivers said the new routes were created primarily by a computer software program that did not consider all of the practical input of drivers and former route coordinators.

Other consequences of efficiency have been felt, Murray noted. When supervisors filled buses to capacity, some were too full for safety. A driver for seven years, Murray said she, a principal and another driver worked out a way to divide up students so one driver could make an extra "unofficial" run.

"We couldn't get any help," Murray said. "We created our own rules."

John Franklin, who took over the transportation department in June, confirmed the short time frame in rolling out the pilot program eliminated dry runs on the new routes that usually work out problems.

"There were time constrictions," Franklin said. Software still is being customized, he said, and he still hasn't hired four employees for the call center opened by the district this year to handle parent complaints and concerns.

Employees such as mechanics, clerks and a fuel station attendant have been answering calls in the portable call center at the transportation complex. Workers must run into the dispatcher's nearby office to check on late buses, then return to give the information to parents.

There is still no computerized system of logging complaints, but Franklin said that is in his plans.

Franklin said Wednesday's meeting with drivers and other officials was "a sharing session," and that he plans to keep meeting with them to work out problems. "There's a lot of frustration," he said.

Some drivers were so frustrated that they left the meeting in tears, said Luis Perez, president of the Hillsborough School Employees Federation. Late buses were common in south county's Area Five before, he said, but it's gotten worse.

"We've got more drivers in Area Five than we had last year and we have more problems than last year," Perez said.

Rose Kormondy, a driver since August, said she makes two high school runs, an elementary and a middle school run and then a "sweep" middle school run to pick up students who may have been left behind.

"I'm late to my elementary school five to 15 minutes every day," Kormondy said. She said she received her route assignment two days before school started and it included safety problems that took time to get permission to fix: "I had 30 of my kids crossing Balm River Road and people running my stop arm, shooting me a bird."

Franklin said he doesn't know how long it will take to take to get the buses running on time, but he is committed to making the system he inherited into the centralized, more standardized system envisioned by district consultants.

The consultant, paid $15,000, deemed the troubled system of 1,100 buses and far too few drivers inefficient and ineffective. Suggestions to improve it came from yet another outside consultant, paid $325,500 to date.

"There's no way to spin it: If you're late, you're late," Franklin said last month during interviews about the problems.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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