Local schools should rethink transportation
The year 2020 will be remembered most for the coronavirus, but it should also be remembered as a year in which
Anne Arundel County started to take a serious look at school transportation.
Prismatic Services released their evaluation of county public schools’ Transportation Office in January, and they orally presented their 270-page report of findings and recommendations to the Board of Education in March, two days before schools were shuttered.
In July, after considering the severity of the findings and strength of the recommendations in the Prismatic report, as well as compelling testimony from diverse community voices, the County Council denied the school board’s request to move funding intended for additional bus routing personnel to other positions. Most of the routing and transportation software personnel were hired by the end of 2020.
What transportation progress will be made in 2021? With a fully elected school board, can the public expect oversight and transparency in the implementation of Prismatic’s 27 recommendations?
The progress report provided to the board after multiple requests by board members reveals a shallow response by the AACPS administration, despite the potential of savings millions of dollars and improving both the effectiveness and efficiency of operations by implementing the recommendations. When health metrics improve to the point that a robust discussion of hybrid school can resume, questions regarding the vital role of transportation will require detailed answers.
Now is the time for the newly elected board to ask hard questions and expect thorough, thoughtful, and timely responses.
The Prismatic report found that students are not assigned to bus stops, creating uncertainty as to potential bus occupancy loads. Last school year, some buses were so overloaded students were sitting in aisles, while others had less than a handful of riders.
A year later, students are still not yet assigned to bus routes, and if schools reopen during the pandemic, AACPS plans to limit the number of students to one per seat (with siblings sitting together), which would yield about 23 students per bus. If students aren’t yet assigned to stops, how will AACPS determine which 23 students are on a route? How will AACPS differentiate between the students attending Monday and Tuesday in-person versus those attending Thursday and Friday for bus routes?
On the bright side, the County Council and the county’s elected state lawmakers are working to improve school transportation.
In addition to the council’s fiscal support for bus routing personnel, Dels. Dana Jones, Heather Bagnell, Sandy Barlett, and Shaneka Henson have introduced a bill to prohibit the unsafe practice of students standing in aisles on overloaded buses. State Sen. Sarah Elfreth has cross-filed the bill in the Senate. Both bills (House Bill 87 and Senate Bill 253) are scheduled for committee hearings this month.
Del. Brian Chisholm and state Senate Minority Leader Brian Simonaire, acting on the first recommendation of the Prismatic report, plan to submit legislation to allow vehicles other than big yellow school buses to transport students, similar to what Pennsylvania permits.
A new year offers hope and optimism, and I propose a toast to safer, more efficient school transportation for our children in 2021. With continued public pressure, I am hopeful and optimistic that the longoverdue school transportation improvements outlined by the Prismatic Services report and legislation as proposed will finally be realized.