Punxsy school board talks bus issues
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Punxsutawney Area School Board members discussed transportation, discipline problems on the elementary buses and double runs at the board’s committee meeting on Thursday at the administration building.
Bob Koban, vice president of Tri-County Transportation, presented an update on the new terminal building, which is nearing completion. It is located behind the old Bell Township Elementary School building on Airport Road.
“We’re moving along very well,” Koban said. “The drywall is hung and finished, and the painters are starting on Monday. We’re on track with the last update that I gave you at a prior meeting.”
Dee Dee Evans, school board vice president, asked about the double runs, especially in the morning.
“I’ve heard the bus that one student was riding on is supposed to pick her up at 8:14 a.m. and doesn’t arrive until 8:32 a.m. and by the time she gets to school, she gets off the bus, goes to her locker and doesn’t have the chance to eat breakfast,” Evans said. “What are you doing to get that taken care of?”
Koban said he’s not aware of any complaints, and Tri-County has put together a list of double runs for the administration to review.
“I would like to see that. If there’s only one child that isn’t getting breakfast, there’s a whole bus full that aren’t getting there on time,” Evans said. “I know that there’s a national shortage of school bus drivers, and it’s very hard to find them. There are districts out there, I’m on the IU-6 Board, and there are other districts having the same problem, and a
lot of them are using two transportation companies to be able to get it done so they’re not having to speed, not getting kids to school late and they aren’t crowding a bus full of 70 kids. I don’t know what the answer is; I do know that I don’t want to see kids getting to school late and not be able to get breakfast. A hungry child is not going to learn.”
Koban said he can look into the situation.
Matt Kengersky, board member, said that they have reports of buses speeding and asked if Tri-County uses technology to track locations of buses and their speed.
“Anytime that a bus is reported speeding, we look into it and our camera systems record the speed,” Koban said. “I’m not going to tell you that our buses never speed, but the greater potion of the reports are not factual, and I don’t know what to attribute that to.”
“I don’t discount it and neither does our staff; anytime I receive a report of a bus speeding, we pull the tape, and if the driver did do something directly, it’s addressed,” he added. “If somebody is a habitual offender, there’s obviously a package you could use; I can tell you that the majority of those complaints are unfounded.”
Koban said if there’s a particular bus that you want us to look into, they have nothing to hide.
Kengersky also asked what happens when a driver or another student reports an unruly student.
Koban said that question would be better referred to Paul Hetrick, the school’s transportation director.
“The driver does a referral to the dispatchers, and then they send it to the appropriate assistant principal who handles the discipline; that’s the flow of how it goes,” Hetrick said.
“The reason I’m bringing this up, we received a phone call from a parent who thought that a student on a bus had multiple disciplinary issues and was still on that bus with their child,” Kengersky said. “Is there an escalation process in which a student is being so unruly they can’t ride the bus?”
Koban said he’s been in Punxsy a lot with these drivers and hasn’t had any approach him personally and saying that the administration isn’t doing anything in regard to discipline.
“I would say the opposite; they work very well with us,” Koban said.
He said Tri-County can poll the drivers and ask them if they’re having any particular difficulties.
“We’d be happy to do that, as far as them coming up to us to discuss any bus group that is giving them trouble,” Koban said.
The next Punxsy school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday.