Rim of the World Unified School District Report

Rim of the World Unified School District Transportation Review April 16, 2018 Michael H. Fine Chief Executive Officer Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM April 16, 2018 Michelle Murphy, Superintendent Rim of the World Unified School District 27315 North Bay Road Blue Jay, CA 92317 Dear Superintendent Murphy: In November 2017, the Rim of the World Unified School District entered into an agreement with the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) for a study of the district’s home-to-school and special education transportation. Specifically, the study agreement states that FCMAT will do the following: 1. Review the transportation delivery system for regular home-to-school and Special Education transportation, including but not limited to routing methodology, bus ridership averages, cost per mile comparisons, scheduling, operations and staffing and general fund contribution, and make recommendations for improvements and potential cost savings, if any. 2. Evaluate the transportation department’s organizational structure and staffing, and make recommendations for staffing improvements or reductions, if any. 3. Review the transportation department operational processes and procedures, including use of technology for program support areas, safety and training program, required school bus driver record maintenance and professional develop- ment, and make recommendations for improved efficiency, if any. 4. Review the district’s vehicle maintenance program identifying industry standard best practices; compliance with Title 13 Code of Regulations, California Air Resources Board and local Air Quality Management District regulations; vehicle maintenance records, school bus safety checks and district fleet preventative main- tenance program design and documentation; inventory control and district fleet inventory assessment, and make recommendations for improvement, if any. 5. Review the district’s transportation facility to include terminal offices, vehicle maintenance repair garages, fueling infrastructure, fleet parking, county storm water requirements and adherence, hazardous materials best practices and security, and make recommendations for improvement, if any. This report contains the study team’s findings and recommendations. FCMAT appreciates the opportunity to serve the Rim of the World Unified School District and extends thanks to its staff for their cooperation and assistance during this review. Sincerely, Michael H. Fine Chief Executive Officer Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM i TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents About FCMAT .........................................................................................iii Introduction ............................................................................................1 Executive Summary ..............................................................................3 Findings and Recommendations .....................................................7 Transportation Funding and Finance ......................................................7 Routing ............................................................................................................11 Staffing ............................................................................................................15 Vehicle Maintenance, Fleet and Facility ................................................19 Driver Training and Safety .........................................................................23 Technology ....................................................................................................27 Appendices ............................................................................................29 RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT ii Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM iii ABOUT FCMAT About FCMAT FCMAT’s primary mission is to assist California’s local K-14 educational agencies to identify, prevent, and resolve financial, human resources and data management challenges. FCMAT provides fiscal and data management assistance, professional development training, product development and other related school business and data services. FCMAT’s fiscal and manage- ment assistance services are used not just to help avert fiscal crisis, but to promote sound financial practices, support the training and development of chief business officials and help to create efficient organizational operations. FCMAT’s data management services are used to help local educational agencies (LEAs) meet state reporting responsibilities, improve data quality, and inform instructional program decisions. FCMAT may be requested to provide fiscal crisis or management assistance by a school district, charter school, community college, county office of education, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, or the Legislature. When a request or assignment is received, FCMAT assembles a study team that works closely with the LEA to define the scope of work, conduct on-site fieldwork and provide a written report with findings and recommendations to help resolve issues, overcome challenges and plan for the future. FCMAT has continued to make adjustments in the types of support provided based on the changing dynamics of K-14 LEAs and the implementation of major educational reforms. Studies by Fiscal Year 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 94/95 95/96 96/97 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 FCMAT also develops and provides numerous publications, software tools, workshops and professional development opportunities to help LEAs operate more effectively and fulfill their fiscal oversight and data management responsibilities. The California School Information Services (CSIS) division of FCMAT assists the California Department of Education with the implementation of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). CSIS also hosts and maintains the Ed-Data website (www.ed-data.org) and provides technical expertise to the Ed-Data partnership: the California Department of Education, EdSource and FCMAT. FCMAT was created by Assembly Bill (AB) 1200 in 1992 to assist LEAs to meet and sustain their financial obligations. AB 107 in 1997 charged FCMAT with responsibility for CSIS and its state- wide data management work. AB 1115 in 1999 codified CSIS’ mission. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT seidutS fo rebmuN iv ABOUT FCMAT AB 1200 is also a statewide plan for county offices of education and school districts to work together locally to improve fiscal procedures and accountability standards. AB 2756 (2004) provides specific responsibilities to FCMAT with regard to districts that have received emergency state loans. In January 2006, Senate Bill 430 (charter schools) and AB 1366 (community colleges) became law and expanded FCMAT’s services to those types of LEAs. Since 1992, FCMAT has been engaged to perform more than 1,000 reviews for LEAs, including school districts, county offices of education, charter schools and community colleges. The Kern County Superintendent of Schools is the administrative agent for FCMAT. The team is led by Michael H. Fine, Chief Executive Officer, with funding derived through appropriations in the state budget and a modest fee schedule for charges to requesting agencies. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 1 INTRODUCTION Introduction Background Located in San Bernardino County, the Rim of the World Unified School District’s attendance boundaries encompass 121.4 square miles in the communities of Lake Arrowhead, Blue Jay, Twin Peaks, Crestline, Running Springs, Arrowbear Lake and Green Valley Lake. The district has three elementary schools, one middle school, one comprehensive high school and one continuation high school. In 2016-17, the district had an enrollment of 3,521 students according to CDE data, with an unduplicated count of high-needs students of approximately 54%. The enrollment is less than 3,400 pupils, with a trend of approximately 3% decline for several years. The district transports approximately 1,358 students on 17 bus routes, four of which are special education routes carrying approximately 61 pupils (included in the above total). Approximately seven special education students are transported by other modes, including three served by the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, two by their nonpublic school and two by parents. On November 2, 2017, the district entered into a study agreement with the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) that requested FCMAT to perform the following: 1. Review the transportation delivery system for regular home-to-school and Special Education transportation, including but not limited to routing meth- odology, bus ridership averages, cost per mile comparisons, scheduling, opera- tions and staffing and general fund contribution, and make recommendations for improvements and potential cost savings, if any. 2. Evaluate the transportation department’s organizational structure and staffing, and make recommendations for staffing improvements or reductions, if any. 3. Review the transportation department operational processes and procedures, including use of technology for program support areas, safety and training program, required school bus driver record maintenance and professional development, and make recommendations for improved efficiency, if any. 4. Review the district’s vehicle maintenance program identifying industry standard best practices; compliance with Title 13 Code of Regulations, California Air Resources Board and local Air Quality Management District regulations; vehicle maintenance records, school bus safety checks and district fleet preventive maintenance program design and documentation; inventory control and district fleet inventory assessment, and make recommendations for improvement, if any. 5. Review the district’s transportation facility to include terminal offices, vehicle maintenance repair garages, fueling infrastructure, fleet parking, county storm water requirements and adherence, hazardous materials best practices and security, and make recommendations for improvement, if any. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 2 INTRODUCTION Study and Report Guidelines FCMAT visited the district on January 29, 30 and 31, 2018 to conduct interviews with district staff, collect data, review documents and inspect facilities. This report is the result of those activi- ties and is divided into the following sections: I. Executive Summary II. Transportation Funding and Finance III. Routing IV. Staffing V. Vehicle Maintenance, Fleet and Facility VI. Driver Training and Safety VII. Technology VIII. Appendices FCMAT’s reports focus on systems and processes that may need improvement. Those that may be functioning well are generally not commented on in FCMAT’s reports. In writing its reports, FCMAT uses the Associated Press Stylebook, a comprehensive guide to usage and accepted style that emphasizes conciseness and clarity. In addition, this guide emphasizes plain language, discourages the use of jargon and capitalizes relatively few terms. Study Team The study team was composed of the following members: Eric D. Smith, MPA Timothy Purvis * FCMAT Intervention Specialist Director of Transportation Templeton, CA Poway Unified School District Poway, CA Leonel Martínez FCMAT Technical Writer Marsa Miller Bakersfield, CA FCMAT Consultant Tehachapi, CA Michael Rea FCMAT Consultant Sonoma, CA *As a member of this study team, this consultant was not representing his respective employers but was working solely as an independent contractor for FCMAT. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Executive Summary Transportation Funding and Finance The San Bernardino County Office of Education transports approximately three of the Rim of the World Unified School District’s special education students, and two are transported by their nonpublic school. This practice is quite expensive, costing respectively $57,933 and $17,572 per pupil compared to the district’s average cost of approximately $7,815 per pupil per year. The district charges $48 per hour and $1.12 per mile for out-of-town field trips and $2.32 per mile with no hourly charge for trips that remain in the community. An hourly rate regardless of the destination would be more cost-effective. Drivers have been directed to take vacation days during school session instead of receiving pay for the vacation time. It would be more effective for the district to pay vacation days with the understanding that drivers take time off when school is not in session. The district transportation fee generated $133,884.59 in the 2016-17 fiscal year, and the 2017-18 budget projects revenue of $135,000. Increasing the fee level would reduce the general fund contribution to transportation. The department’s mechanics provide maintenance for support vehicles. The department charges the parts necessary for repairs to the respective Maintenance, Operations, Grounds and Food Service departments, but does not charge labor, which would be more cost-effective. Routing Approximately 16.5% of total special education students are identified as requiring transporta- tion as a related service on their IEPs. This number is slightly high compared with what FCMAT has seen statewide. AR 3541 stipulates the following nonservice zones or walking distance for students at various grade levels. However, the district has historically ignored these distances because of mountain roads, the lack of sidewalks and the need to cross highways. It should revise this policy to reflect the actual practice. Field trips and athletic trips can place stress on a department when few substitutes are available to cover those that conflict with regular home-to-school, school-to-home route times. Considering many trips out of town (“down the hill”), the department probably does not cover all its costs. The district should ensure the transportation department recovers the costs to provide this service. Bus route loading numbers appear to be relatively low, possibly indicating that regular education bus routes could be further consolidated. The district should strive to maximize the number of passengers per route and minimize the number of bus routes. Staffing The collective bargaining agreement does not include a dispatcher position. The clerk III position performs dispatch services. This is a highly responsible duty, yet this position is paid the lowest in the department on Step I at $14.60 per hour. The clerk III position should be upgraded to the administrative secretary classification. Drivers are paid time and one half for six days to shovel snow. This is likely not in the district’s best interest because of possible industrial injuries. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Because the transportation supervisor does not drive routes, the department is forced to run routes late and use costly substitutes that are also not bargaining unit members. Both mechanics have school bus certificates, but never drive. The mechanics could occasionally be used for this task. The department employs two mechanics. The mechanic-skilled has a schedule of four 10-hour days but also works 10 hours on his unassigned day. This is a significant overtime expense. The mechanics should either both work five eight-hour days with a staggered shift time, or the department should resolve this overtime issue by developing its own schedule. The district uses an independent, contracted school bus driver instructor at a rate of $75 per hour. It should prepare the supervisor to become a delegated behind-the-wheel instructor and select a driver to be prepared as a state-certified school bus driver Instructor. Vehicle Maintenance, Fleet and Facility Vehicle Maintenance The California Highway Patrol (CHP) Motor Carrier Inspector Unit annually inspects district buses and various transportation records. The results of the district’s most current inspections resulted in three ratings of “unsatisfactory.” This grade is based on driver records; however, it is considered serious. In each case, CHP clearly advises that a failure to correct the deficiencies can result in a recommendation to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to revoke the district’s motor carrier operating authority, filing a complaint with the district attorney for potential prosecution, and filing an injunction. Charges can be brought against the board and the superin- tendent for failure to address these issues. School buses are required to be inspected at regular intervals, but the district likely does so too frequently, incurring additional costs. It should extend its bus inspection intervals closer to the 45-day requirement or 3,000 miles, whichever comes first. Fleet The district fleet has 32 school buses, which is excessive for the amount of routes it runs. It should reduce the fleet to seven special education buses and 18 coaches for a total of 25 buses to more closely match its need and reduce the excessive maintenance. A new regulation will require all school buses in California to be outfitted with an electronic child check device to ensure students are not left unattended on school buses. The district should prepare for this regulation. The district’s school buses are not outfitted with video camera surveillance systems or global positioning systems (GPS). It should evaluate the need for these systems since they can be useful in reducing vandalism and enforcing student discipline. Driver Training and Safety Driver training records appear to comply with state regulations, with no significant deficiencies. A district Transportation Safety Plan complies with E.C. 39831.3, but it is dated and reflects the 2013-14 school year. A new law requires that all drivers check their bus after each route to ensure that no child is left on the bus. It must be revised to include new child check requirements. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After a driver is involved in a school bus accident, there is no formal process to evaluate whether or not the driver was at fault or if the accident was preventable. The district should establish an accident review and driver re-training practice. The driver handbook was adopted in 1998 and should be updated. The law requires that all commercial drivers to be trained on the vehicles they drive. The department utilizes drivers to train other drivers. This practice should be revised to ensure that the supervisor or a state-certified school bus driver instructor or delegated behind-the-wheel instructor provides the training. The district provides six days at the beginning of each school year for in-service training and orientation. This is excessive and the amount of time should be decreased to the actual need. The district should recruit drivers by advertising in local newspapers and insert an announcement in school newsletters that parents receive. Technology The department utilizes little technology, but should explore low-cost, comprehensive pupil transportation software systems. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 7 TRANSPORTATION FUNDING AND FINANCE Findings and Recommendations Transportation Funding and Finance School transportation in California has been inadequately funded for many years. Until 1977, school districts reported their operational costs to the California Department of Education (CDE), and the state reimbursed those costs in the subsequent year. Capital costs were never reimbursed. After the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the state gradually reduced the percentage of reimbursement. In the 1982-83 school year, only 80% of reported costs were reimbursed, and the state capped the apportionment to each district at that percentage. Cost-of- living adjustments have been granted only occasionally since then. Costs increased and revenue remained static so that the state’s funding share covered only about 45% of reported costs by the 2008-09 school year. That was the highest recent year of funding and it was identified as each participating school district’s “approved apportionment.” During the Great Recession, the state reduced all categorical program funding, including transportation, by approximately 20%, effec- tively meaning less than approximately 35% of the statewide transportation cost is covered, with individual districts varying widely in the percentage of funding allocated to transportation. With the implementation of the state’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in the 2013-14 fiscal year, districts continued to receive the amount certified in April 2013. Under LCFF, trans- portation revenue has never received a COLA, is restricted to transportation use and is subject to a maintenance of effort (MOE), which requires districts to spend at least as much as they receive. For the district, that amounted to $1,437,005. The 2016-17 expenditures for regular and special education transportation were $2,355,993.80, and the district’s 2017-18 transportation budget is $2,184,109. State funding is expected to cover approximately 65.8 % of the district’s transporta- tion expenditures, a significantly higher amount than the approximate statewide funding amount above. This is probably because of higher district transportation costs when the fund was capped 34 years ago. Because the state suspended school transportation data reporting at the outset of LCFF, the district’s transportation costs cannot be compared with those of neighboring or similar districts. The 2017-18 transportation budgets are $1,707,387 for regular education and $476,722 for special education. The estimated transportation cost per pupil for the year is approximately $1,316 for regular education and approximately $7,815 for special education. The California Department of Education (CDE) ceased collecting statewide school transportation data at the outset of the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The last statewide annual cost per pupil before the state eliminated TRAN reporting was an average of approxi- mately $1,500 for regular education and $6,500 for special education transportation. Several special education students are transported by other modes. The San Bernardino County Office of Education serves three students for $173,800, or a per-child annual cost of $57,933. Nonpublic schools transport two students for $35,144 or $17,572 per student. Two parents drive their children to school, one “down the hill (in San Bernardino or other communities)” for an estimated $5,500 per year and the other “on the mountain (in the San Bernardino Mountains)” for approximately $750 per year. These costs average $3,125 per student, per year, but no contract is used for these students. Two sample contracts are attached as Appendix A to this report. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 8 TRANSPORTATION FUNDING AND FINANCE The district has an enrollment of approximately 3,400 students and plans for steadily declining enrollment of 3% per year, but with a 54% unduplicated count, it does not receive LCFF concentration funding. The district shared that there is a significant issue with approximately 1,000 students who live but are not enrolled in the district. This information was obtained from Census data. The district indicated that some attend private schools, but most are enrolled in online charter schools. Further, there is a reported 94% attendance rate for students in the district compared to a 2016-27 statewide average of 94.90%), resulting in lost ADA funding. The district has deficit spent for several years, resulting in a precarious financial position. The San Bernardino County Office of Education did not accept the district’s 2017-18 budget and gave the district an October 2017 deadline to make $1.5 million in reductions. The district met that deadline with a plan that included layoffs, program cuts and position reductions. Some positions in the Transportation Department were reduced or left unfilled including two recent drivers; one retired near the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year and one retired during 2017-18. Bus routes have been consolidated from 19 to 17, providing similar service with fewer regular educa- tion bus routes. The district charges its schools and teams $48 per hour and $1.12 per mile to provide transpor- tation for field trips and athletic trips out of town. These fees are charged portal to portal, which means to and from the bus yard. For in-town shuttles and local trips, the cost is $2.32 per mile without an additional hourly charge. The rationale is that the driver is usually already on the clock. However, implementing an hourly cost regardless of whether the driver is already being paid would better help the department defray its costs. The district charges fees for pupil transportation in compliance with EC 39807.5 The rates are as follows: $225 for the first child in a family, $207 for a second child, $189 for the third and no charge for the fourth. The price for students who qualify for a reduced-price bus pass is $115. Single ride tickets are available for $2 each at any district school, and bus drivers are not allowed to take cash. The district collected $133,884.59 in the 2016-17 fiscal year and has budgeted $135,000 for 2017-18. Increasing transportation fees may generate more income to support the budget; however, these increases usually result in fewer riders and more parents driving. FCMAT has observed that fees of above $400 per child per year usually result in a significant reduction in bus ridership. The most recent CDE guidance letter on pupil transportation fees is attached as Appendix B to this report. Instead of taking vacation, many classified employees prefer to be paid at the end of the fiscal year, creating an additional strain on the district’s finances over time. As a result, the district has required all classified staff to take vacation days. This causes operational problems regarding coverage of bus routes and additional cost to hire substitutes. Work can be delayed to another day or covered by other employees for most classified workers. However, the Transportation Department requires a driver for each route every day, resulting in the necessity of using substi- tutes. The Transportation Department mechanics maintain buses and all nonbus vehicles, including maintenance trucks and vans, grounds and food service vehicles, tractors and mowers. When the Transportation Department repairs these vehicles, it charges the appropriate departments for the cost of parts, but not labor. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 9 TRANSPORTATION FUNDING AND FINANCE Recommendations The district should: 1. Make efforts to serve as many special education students on district buses when reasonable instead of through the county office or nonpublic schools. 2. Develop a contract for parents who use their own vehicle to transport their child. 3. Charge in-town field trips the same rate as all other field trips. 4. Consider implementing a modest increase in school transportation fees to offset the general fund contribution to pupil transportation. 5. Pay for vacation days or schedule vacation when school is not in session. 6. Charge the appropriate departments for labor costs when performing support-fleet maintenance. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 10 TRANSPORTATION FUNDING AND FINANCE Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 11 ROUTING Routing The district transports approximately 1,358 students using 13 home-to-school routes for 1,297 regular-education students and four routes for approximately 61 special education pupils. Service is generally considered good, and the department generally provides transportation in a timely, responsive manner. Routing was recently consolidated from 19 routes to 17 when one driver retired and one position was not re-filled. Seven special education students are transported by the following other modes: • The county office transports three to its programs. • Nonpublic school providers serve two. • Parents transport another two and are reimbursed for mileage. The Transportation Department reports it transports 61 special education students, but the Special Education Department indicated it requested transportation for 72, and Transportation cannot explain the difference. Some may use regular education routes, and others may receive transportation from parents by choice. This type of a difference is not unusual. The Special Education Department provided data showing the district had 411 students with IEPs that on January 29, 2017, was approximately 12% of district enrollment. This is close to the average percentage of students with IEPs when compared to total enrollment statewide. The district lacks a chart known as a “decision tree” to help IEP teams make transportation decisions. Further, the IEP case manager and lead is the classroom teacher. Teachers may not be as knowledgeable about providing transportation and certainly not sensitive to the cost. The 61 students transported are approximately 15% of the total number of students now with IEPs, which is high compared to what FCMAT sees statewide. Attached as Appendix C to this report is a sample decision tree and checklist that the district could use to help guide teachers when they make a decision on providing transportation during the IEP. The Special Education Department lacks a transportation request form to notify the Transportation Department of a student who requires special education transportation, or to communicate changes regarding schools, a home address or other pertinent information. Instead, the Special Education Department typically telephones the Transportation Department and verbally relays the information, creating the potential for the omission of critical facts on the student’s disability or health condition. The Special Education Department indicates that a nurse contacts Transportation to share this information, but Transportation indicates its staff are often unaware of a critical disability or other health information, and the district nurse rarely calls to provide these facts. A sample transportation request form for this information is attached as Appendix D to this report. The Transportation Department has read-only access to Aeries, the district’s student information system, so it can obtain the phone numbers of important student and family emergency contacts. Seventy-two students have IEPs that require transportation, which is approximately 17.5% of all special education students that are identified for transportation. This is slightly high compared with what FCMAT has observed statewide and could indicate that transportation is the only reasonable option or that transportation decisions are not effectively managed. Further, 61students ride district routes and seven are transported by others, which is about 16.5% of the total district special education population. That is still a high percentage, but certainly not as high as FCMAT has observed in some school districts, where that number can approach 25%. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 12 ROUTING The Transportation Department staff reported that the number of bus routes has been reduced from 22 over the past decade, mainly through route consolidation that occurred because of declining enrollment. During the same time, the number of special education routes has increased from one to four. This would be consistent with the trend seen by FCMAT statewide. The Transportation Department indicates it does not have access to bus pass information and therefore does not know who will be on each bus at the beginning of the school year. The depart- ment does not collect student rider data or require students to register for school transportation service. The district operates with similar routes and bus stops year after year, making adjust- ments based on the need according to students and parents at the beginning of each school year. Education Code Section 39831.5 requires school districts to collect such information so they can determine if students are required to be escorted across a roadway. The district does not identify students or develop a list of pupils for each bus stop before the beginning of the school year. The district’s Administrative Regulation (AR) 3541 establishes nonservice zones or walking distance as follows: • K-3: Three-quarters of a mile • 4-8: One mile • 9-12: Two miles However, the district has historically ignored these guidelines and provided bus stops within the distances. Few areas are safe walking paths to and from school. This policy could be revised to reflect the actual practice. Because of budget issues, the district has required part-time or 10-month classified staff who generally work only when school is in session to take vacation days instead of being paid. This causes tremendous stress on the Transportation Department since all routes still need drivers and increases costs because of the necessity of paying substitutes. The district should continue to pay for the vacations of school bus drivers and prohibit them from taking vacation time when school is in session. This is a typical practice for most of the state’s transportation departments since they recognize that drivers can typically take time off during winter break, spring vacation and summer without hindering service to students. The department parks buses at two separate locations; four at Running Springs, a school site that has no maintenance facility for the buses or fuel, and two at the county’s road maintenance yard at Crestline. Five buses were parked at Crestline at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, but driver incompatibility forced the department to move three buses back to the main yard. Drivers report to these yards, drive their morning routes, return to the yards mid-day, and repeat the process for the afternoon route. The reported reason for the park-out locations is to reduce bus mileage; however, the mileage and time would be the same if the routes originated from the main yard. Problems could arise if a bus cannot start or has another mechanical problem in the mornings since the district typically does not park buses at these locations. Mechanical problems would cause a delay and late route(s). The department provides most of the district’s transportation for field trips and athletic trips. In the 2016-17 fiscal year, the department provided 194 total trips, 117 for athletics, 10 for the band and the remaining 67 for other purposes. This is not an excessive number of trips for a district of this size. Thus far in the 2017-18 fiscal year, the number of trips is 52 fewer than for the same time last year. Field trips and athletic trips can place stress on a department when there are few substitutes to cover those that conflict with regular route times. The department reported Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 13 ROUTING that if there is a conflict, it encourages teachers to select another day and generally tries to limit the number of these trips to one per day. Athletic trips cannot be rescheduled, but the depart- ment can request that the team leave early, shuttle them to the game significantly before the start time, complete a route, and return later to pick them up. Field trip revenue for the 2016-17 fiscal year was $50,171. Divided by 194 trips, this amount yields approximately $258.61 average revenue per trip. This seems low considering that many trips are out of town, and the district may not cover all its costs. It would be more efficient for the Transportation Department to cover all its costs for field trip and athletic trip service. One of the drivers on staff fills in her nondriving time with the extra duty of booking field trips, assigning the trips to drivers according to the collective bargaining agreement, and collecting the completed mileage and time reports from drivers to consolidate a billing report, allowing the district office to appropriately charge each school or associated student body account. The district uses a field-trip form, and the chief business official (CBO) approves all trips. The district rarely uses charter buses that would qualify as school pupil activity buses (in compliance with California Vehicle Code Section 546), otherwise known as a special pupil activity bus (SPAB). The department indicated it was unsure if the district has approved SPAB companies. The Transportation Department would typically book these trips and bill them to the school. The department has not recently cooperated with other local school districts to assist with trips. This is a strategy that some school districts utilize to occasionally provide field trip service. To reduce costs, some teams used parent drivers instead of a bus. The district has a well defined and comprehensive policy on the use of parent drivers that is more fully explained in the driver training and safety section of this report. Bus routes are entered and managed in Microsoft Excel and/or Word, which is adequate for a department of this size. At the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, all special day class (SDC) classes were moved to a single site. This necessitated some additional transportation and complicated logistics for the special education bus routing. The resulting difficulties at the beginning of the school year took approximately a week to resolve. The district has not established an articulated ride time limit for regular or special education students on bus routes; however, staff indicated that they tried to keep these times to under an hour. That might be difficult, considering the distances that students live from their campus. Longer special education bus ride times can result in greater route efficiency and fewer bus routes. The district has instituted bell times that greatly increase route efficiency. The high school begins at 7:10 a.m., the middle school at 8:10 a.m., and the elementary at 9:10 a.m. for breakfast, with the bell ringing at 9:20 a.m. This allows approximately one hour between runs (a route consists of multiple runs). Separated bell times such as this allow each bus route to be utilized for three runs, morning and afternoon. Some regular education bus routes appear to have relatively light passenger loads. This could be the result of the geographic distances and area the district must travel to serve its population, but the issues should be studied to maximize bus use and minimize the number of bus routes. Bus routing and trip scheduling are performed manually, increasing labor time. However, routing software is probably not warranted for so few routes. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 14 ROUTING Recommendations The district should: 1. Develop and utilize a transportation decision tree for IEPs. 2. Develop and utilize a special education transportation request form. 3. Ensure that the Transportation Department receives student bus pass registra- tion information so it can identify students who cross the road and therefore need to be escorted. 4. Eliminate the bus park-out location arrangements. 5. Revise the “walking distance” criteria in BP 3541 to reflect current practice. 6. Prohibit school bus drivers from taking vacation during regular school days. 7. Consider requiring athletic teams to dismiss early so the bus can transport them to the game, provide route service, and return later to pick up the team when there are driver shortages. Ensure that field trip revenue covers costs. 8. Strive to maximize regular education bus route passengers, and minimize the total number of bus routes. 9. Ensure that the field trip rate charged to teams and schools recovers the cost of performing the trip. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 15 STAFFING Staffing The Transportation Department is staffed as follows: • One 11-month, eight-hour per day transportation supervisor • One FTE lead driver • One FTE clerk III • One 0.5 FTE administrative secretary • One FTE mechanic-skilled • One FTE mechanic-apprentice • Seventeen 215-day, eight-hour per day school bus drivers • Five substitute school bus drivers (not always available) Of the above, two school bus drivers are on administrative leave. The lead driver is on an indus- trial injury leave, and the lead position was not assigned a bus route, but probably drove as a substitute. The lead was also a state-certified school bus driver instructor, but that has probably been invalidated since maintenance of the certification prohibits all associated certifications from lapsing. Since the lead driver has been absent on an industrial injury that prohibits that individual from performing regular work duties including bus driving, the position has probably been unable to pass a required Department of Transportation (DOT) physical exam that is required to maintain the commercial driver license. A new supervisor was hired in the spring of the 2016-17 school year. That position was adver- tised as a 12-month/260-day work schedule, but the supervisor requested a 240-day schedule (11 months). The supervisor likely cannot adequately perform her duties on an 11-month schedule. The department’s dispatcher is a clerk III, a highly responsible position that is paid the lowest in the department at Step I ($14.60 per hour). The collective bargaining agreement does not have a dispatcher classification. This individual should be reclassified to the level of an administrative secretary. An administrative secretary assists the Transportation Department at a reported level of 0.5 FTE, and has the duties of processing leaves and payroll data for the Transportation Department as well as covering the two-way radio from 9:30 a.m. to 12:15 a.m. daily. Little radio activity occurs at this time because bus routes are generally not active. Drivers have a 215-day work calendar, eight hours per day. Training occurs on the six days before the school year begins. This amount of training and orientation time is excessive. Buses are cleaned and waxed on the six days after the school year ends, a length of time that could be reduced by at least half. The bus driver calendar also includes six additional snow days although snow often does not fall. During an actual snow day, school would not be in session, but drivers would work the makeup day. Such additional days could be paid on a supplemental payroll. On snow days, drivers were expected to come to work and shovel snow at school campuses, but the district recently eliminated this requirement and instead compensates drivers with time-and- a-half pay to perform this task. This work could increase the possibility of industrial injuries. However, the 215-day calendar entitles drivers to full health and welfare benefits under the collective bargaining agreement. The district would benefit from negotiating reductions to the guaranteed number of workdays for school bus drivers. That could include grandfathering in the current employees with new employees having fewer guaranteed workdays. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 16 STAFFING Most regular education bus routes include pretrip inspection (30 minutes), fueling (15 minutes), breaks (two to 15 minutes), washing (15 minutes per day that accumulate so buses can be washed about once every two weeks), and sweeping and cleaning (15 minutes). Some drivers have additional duty time assigned to their route, but other idle time is paid with no assigned duty. This amounts to more than $100,000 per year in additional cost. Two drivers repair seats and one books field trips as part of their duties. This field-trip person effectively performs those duties. However, many buses are dirty, seats are ripped or cut, and many Coach buses used compressed natural gas and require no fueling time per day. At the time of FCMAT’s fieldwork, no bus aides were assigned to special education routes although the special education director indicated that an aide will soon be assigned for a student with a seizure disorder. The Special Education Department will pay for these aides. The new supervisor recently instituted monthly “staff” or safety meetings. However, with the department’s labor unrest, it may be beneficial to schedule a regular, calendared department employee-employer relations meeting to discuss contractual issues and can function as an open forum. That could help reduce union issues. The supervisor indicated she cannot drive a bus route when substitutes are needed because the union disapproves. As a result, routes are late, and students arrive at school after they should. Further, substitute bus drivers are not union employees, and they drive routes without drawing complaints. It is important for the supervisor to drive routes when necessary to maintain the repu- tation of the department and its service. Neither mechanic drives although both have school bus certificates. Although the mechanics’ time is necessary in the shop, they could be occasionally used for driving duties. This is similar to the above critical need of the department to cover bus routes. The district has two mechanics although it once had four positions in the shop. The district does not need this many mechanics, but could benefit from a mechanic helper position. If the district can negotiate the elimination of driver duties, it could eventually create a position that works half-time as a driver and half-time as mechanic helper position (an existing classification in the contract). The two roles are paid at different rates, which would make sense. If the contract cannot be changed soon, drivers need to do this work more religiously, and the shop should utilize some available driver duty time to perform more light mechanical duties other than just seat repair. The skilled mechanic has a schedule of four 10-hour days (Monday-Thursday), but also works a 10-hour shift on Friday, which is his day off, creating excessive overtime. The other mechanic works five eight-hour days. These positions could either both work five-day, eight-hour shifts, with a staggered shift schedule, or the issue could be resolved with a schedule developed by the district. One of these positions is classified as a mechanic-skilled, and the other as a mechanic-apprentice. Both perform the same work, and the mechanic-apprentice is an experienced and skilled jour- neyman. The mechanic-apprentice should be elevated to the mechanic-skilled classification. When transportation staff calls one driver at home to ask a question, she considers it “call-back time” and believes she should receive two hours of pay. The collective bargaining agreement clearly defines call-back time as the hours logged when an employee is summoned back to work after he or she has finished a regular shift. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 17 STAFFING The Transportation Department uses an independent, contract school bus driver instructor who receives $75 per hour for training drivers and maintaining driver training files. A plan calls for sending the new supervisor to the CDE’s instructor training program to become a state-certified school bus driver instructor. This may not be in the district’s best interest. Department needs require her to be present daily, and this training requires three weeks in a residential program in Sacramento. The position’s responsibilities would increase to the point of being almost unman- ageable. Instead, the supervisor could be trained as a delegated behind-the-wheel instructor, which is another type of driver instructor certified by the California Department of Education. This type of training would not require time away from the district, and another driver could be selected to become an instructor. Before selecting someone to become state-certified school bus driver, it might be prudent to wait until lead driver issue is resolved and the district knows whether that individual will return to work. The use of a delegated behind-the-wheel instructor or a state-certified school bus driver instructor would generally be only on an as-needed basis, not a regular position. If the lead driver does not return, it would not be necessary to fill this position. The supervisor could train behind the wheel as needed within her regular schedule to become a delegated behind-the-wheel instructor. Recommendations The district should: 1. Encourage the transportation supervisor to work 12 months. 2. Reclassify the clerk III position to the position of administrative secretary. The administrative secretary time assigned to the Transportation Department should be evaluated and reduced if duties do not constitute 0.5 FTE. 3. Work to negotiate and minimize bus driver guaranteed workdays and hours, perhaps grandfathering in current drivers. 4. Assign the transportation supervisor as a substitute driver on bus routes when driver coverage is not complete. Mechanics need to drive as a substitute on bus routes as necessary. 5. Elevate the mechanic-apprentice to mechanic-skilled, and better manage the latter position’s overtime. 6. Ensure drivers with extra-duty time complete that work, and assign other duty time to assist the shop with light maintenance. Work to negotiate the end of driver duty time by reducing routes to the actual time necessary, and eventually hire a 0.5 FTE mechanic helper. 7. Clarify the definition of “call-back time in the classified collective bargaining agreement. 8. Prepare the transportation supervisor to become a delegated behind-the-wheel instructor. Pending the disposition of the lead driver, select and prepare one driver to become a state-certified school bus driver instructor. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 18 STAFFING Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 19 VEHICLE MAINTENANCE, FLEET AND FACILITY Vehicle Maintenance, Fleet and Facility Vehicle Maintenance Each year, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Motor Carrier Inspector Unit inspects buses, vehicle maintenance records, driver records, driver timekeeping records and federal drug and alcohol training records. The agency produces a report of its findings entitled the “Safety Compliance Report/Terminal Record Update,” or more commonly known as the “terminal grade.” The district’s most current inspections are as follows: • 9/1/15: Unsatisfactory for DMV Pull Notice and Driver time keeping records • 1/15/16: Unsatisfactory for Driver Records • 5/26/16: Satisfactory • 8/19/16: Satisfactory • 8/11/17: Satisfactory • 8/17/17: Amended to Unsatisfactory based on drug and alcohol testing records. This was upgraded to a Satisfactory rating as of December 6, 2017. • 12/6/17: Satisfactory “Satisfactory” is the highest grade awarded to any motor carrier and indicates general compli- ance with laws and regulations governing school bus safety. An “unsatisfactory” grade is very serious. In each case, CHP clearly advises that a failure to correct the deficiencies can result in a recommendation to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to revoke the district’s motor carrier operating authority, filing a complaint with the district attorney for potential prosecution, and filing an injunction. Charges can be brought against the board and the superintendent for failure to address these issues. The reason for the district’s prior unsatisfactory ratings, though serious, do not constitute a signif- icant concern about vehicle maintenance procedures or vehicle safety since the violations were related to driver records, not vehicle maintenance. School buses are required to be inspected every 45 days or 3,000 miles, whichever occurs first, as per Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations, Section 1232 (13 CCR 1232). The district keeps a white board in the shop listing the due dates of the inspections and performs them on a 30-day rotation. Mileage intervals are generally between 1,000 and 2,000, indicating that the department likely overinspects buses. Although this practice ensures general compliance with the regulation, it can be costly, necessitating 12 inspections per year instead of the eight required for a 45-day rotation. For 32 buses at an average of two hours per inspection, this requires mechanics to work an additional 256 hours of labor that could be spent on other mechanical duties. The department indicates it does this because of safety concerns in the district’s mountainous area; however, 45 days is a high standard and applies to all school districts in the state. The CHP has no higher standard based on geography. To allay safety concerns, the district could inspect and adjust bus brakes more frequently, which would take far less labor time. The shop has no inventory of parts, tires and equipment; therefore, the value and types of parts the district stores are unknown. Recent state legislation requires districts to train school bus drivers to check buses after every route to ensure that no students are left behind unattended. This training should be provided, RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 20 VEHICLE MAINTENANCE, FLEET AND FACILITY and the district’s transportation safety plan should be revised to include the new requirements. In addition, the district must install some type of compliant electronic device for this purpose by the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, outside repairs for the Transportation Department cost $83,767. This amount is not excessive for the size of the fleet since most school district vehicle mainte- nance shops are not equipped to perform all vehicle repairs. Parts for nonstudent transportation vehicles (i.e. “white fleet”) are charged to appropriate depart- ment, but labor is not. A review of the special education transportation budget found that it does not have line items for outside repairs, parts, and some other categories that would be charged to the district’s buses. More appropriate separation of these costs would better inform the district of the actual cost of this service. The regular education transportation budget appears to bear the greater burden, giving the impression that it is much more costly. The bus preventive maintenance program also includes oil change, filter change and chassis lube at 10,000 miles, along with a check of air brake slack adjusters. The “C” check is for all support- fleet maintenance. These vehicles should be in the shop every 3,000 miles for inspection and service, which should be monitored by the driver and a mileage sticker placed on the vehicle. However, the staff do not routinely bring the vehicles in for inspection or service. The shop has no other way of knowing the mileage. The “D” service is an annual school bus check and includes all fluids, a differential check, a four-wheel drive check, a transmission service, a fuel and air filter change, hydraulic oil filter and coolant filter change and spark plugs. The service would be performed annually. When a driver finds a bus defect during a daily pretrip inspection and reports it, the department routes the report to the shop. The repair is made, but no mechanism that communicates this to the driver. Fleet The district has 32 buses and recently declared four others as surplus and sold them. It also has one 2003 minibus donated by A-Z Bus Sales and the South Coast Air Quality Management District that has never been registered to the district. The department plans to rehabilitate this vehicle for use as a special education bus; however, it needs new CNG tanks and other work to make it roadworthy and legal to operate. Recently, the district applied to the South Coast Air Quality Management District for grants to replace three Crown Coach school buses. Two replacement buses will be 81-passenger CNG Coaches, and one will be a 42-passenger CNG Coach with wheelchair lift for special education. When all is completed, the district will have 33 buses: eight for special education and 25 Coaches. This is too many buses for the actual need and unnecessarily increases maintenance and insurance costs. Because of the growth of special educa- tion transportation and the continuing need for field trip services, the district should reduce the fleet to seven special education buses and 18 Coaches for a total of 25. The average fleet age is 14.8 years, which is not excessively old and indicates the district has made regular investments in school buses. The district’s support-fleet list includes 23 vehicles, but the Vehicle Maintenance Department is responsible for additional wheeled, motorized vehicles including tractors and mowers. The buses have no video cameras, but the district wishes to purchase some to reduce the number of seats damaged by students. Video camera systems usually have four camera heads and are Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 21 VEHICLE MAINTENANCE, FLEET AND FACILITY digital and relatively reliable, but they are expensive at approximately $2,500 per bus. Camera systems take a great deal of time to manage and maintain, and do not always provide the video necessary to identify students who damage buses since the high seat backs conceal the seating area. The fleet does not have global position system (GPS) devices. These devices can be relatively inexpensive, and some are integrated in video camera systems; however, ongoing satellite costs can be expensive. Real-time GPS devices can be helpful in determining where buses are at all times, and can verify information when parents and schools complain that a bus did not stop at its location at a particular time. The devices track where buses are when they stop and how long they are stopped. The district has a two-way radio system that allows drivers and the transportation office to communicate vital information. The department reported that the district reduced the number of mountain-top antenna repeater sites some years ago. This has resulted in poorer radio coverage since some of the district is outside of the area of clear reception. This could produce unintended safety issues for the department. Facilities The bus maintenance facility is functional, modern, clean, and outfitted with necessary tools and diagnostic software, and appropriate for the number of vehicles. The district complies with the State Water Board’s Storm Water Pollution and Prevention Plan and works to ensure that contaminated storm water does not enter into local waterways. The district also complies with industrial waste regulations. The Maintenance and Operations Department manages these two critical tasks. The district operates a CNG fueling system that is of adequate size for its needs and is main- tained by an external contractor. The district has a 3,000-gallon tank and an 8,000-gallon tank for diesel fuel on site. The tanks are underground with the fuel pumps in a locked shed in the middle of the bus yard. The district purchases gasoline at the San Bernardino County Road Maintenance Yards. Recommendations The district should: 1. Extend bus inspection schedule to intervals closer to 45 days per bus or 3,000 miles, whichever comes first. 2. Create a system to inspect and service white fleet vehicles on the stipulated 3,000-mile intervals. 3. Prepare for the state’s new child check statutes and regulations. 4. Evaluate the need for video cameras and GPS devices on buses. 5. Improve two-way radio coverage. 6. Inventory tires, parts and equipment to establish value and know what parts are in stock. Sell or return parts for buses that are no longer in the fleet. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 22 VEHICLE MAINTENANCE, FLEET AND FACILITY 7. Charge the appropriate departments for mechanic labor time for working on the support fleet. Develop a procedure to notify the driver that a bus repair has been completed. 8. Revise the special education transportation budget to include an appropriate share of parts, outside labor and other department costs. 9. Reduce the number of school buses to a number that is closer to the actual need. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 23 DRIVER TRAINING AND SAFETY Driver Training and Safety School bus driver training in California is highly regulated. Prospective school bus drivers must receive a minimum of 20 hours of classroom training and 20 hours of behind-the-wheel training (E.C. 40080-40089) on curriculum developed by the California Department of Education’s Office of School Transportation. The classroom-training units take approximately 35 hours to complete, and approximately the same amount is necessary for behind-the-wheel training. In addition, every year school bus drivers must receive a minimum of 10 hours of in-service training time. Only a state-certified school bus driver instructor can conduct the training (E.C. 40084.5). A delegated behind-the-wheel instructor, which is another certification allowed by law and performed by the CDE’s Office of School Transportation, may provide behind-the-wheel training. The training must be meticulously recorded. In addition, school bus drivers must submit to a background check (fingerprinting) for licensing and for employment, and drug and alcohol testing in compliance with Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) rules (49CFR382). The district’s driver training records appear to be in order with no significant deficiencies, indi- cating that the contract instructor is keeping the department’s drivers up to date on their required training. The district has a Transportation Safety Plan that complies with E.C. 39831.3, but it is dated for the 2013-14 school year. The plan must be revised to include new child check requirements to ensure drivers check their bus at the conclusion of each route to ensure that no child is left behind unattended. The district must have a plan available for inspection by a CHP officer at each school. A sample plan that complies the law is attached as Appendix E to this report. E.C. 39831.5 requires school bus emergency evacuation drills and student safety instruction to be performed annually, and specific records kept for students in grades K-6. Specific safety information must be announced before every field trip. The Transportation Department is aware of these regulations and appears to have conducted these drills. Board Policy 3543 has a limited visibility policy in compliance with VC 34501.6. This law requires adoption of such a policy and gives the drivers the discretionary authority to cease opera- tion of the vehicle when visibility is less than 200’. The department has occasional school bus accidents. The supervisor reported that she and the contracted driver instructor evaluate these events to determine preventability and fault, but usually default to CHP report. They determine if training is necessary, but usually only after a driver has more than one accident in a short period of time. Data indicates two accidents in which the driver was not at fault occurred in 2015-16. Eight accidents occurred in 2016-17, and the driver was at fault in six, and six have happened so far in the 2017-18 school year, with five drivers at fault. A copy of the district’s submitted table of recent bus accidents is attached as Appendix F to this report. However, the supervisor indicated that district records appear to be incomplete. In only three of the above accidents were drivers trained after the accident, and one retraining is scheduled in the future. The supervisor also reported that the district has a form the contract driver instructor uses when she retrains to record what remedial training was performed. The supervisor manages the DMV pull notice program. This program requires each commercial driver to be enrolled so the district receives annual reports of a driver’s record and gets notified when an accident or moving violation occurs. Teachers and coaches do not drive district vehicles, RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 24 DRIVER TRAINING AND SAFETY so really none are in the program; however, Maintenance and Operations staff do, so they should be enrolled. The district also enrolls parent volunteers, which is appropriate. The district allows parents to drive students on field trips and some athletic trips. As required in board policy, a packet of information and requirements for parents indicates that they are enrolled in DMV pull notice program and must at a minimum have insurance in the following amounts: $100,000 for bodily injury, $300,000 for liability and $50,000 property damage. They submit a copy of their driver license and sign a form that outlines their responsibility as a parent driver. This is one of the best processes for parent drivers that FCMAT has seen. School bus drivers who drive field trips are required to have one year of experience as a contract driver and receive additional field trip training with the state-certified instructor before being placed on the field trip rotation list. This ensure that field trip drivers receive additional training and have sufficient experience before driving outside of the area or down the hill for field trips. Title 13 California Code of Regulations section 1213 (13CCR 1213) requires logbooks to be kept for most commercial drivers. School bus drivers are generally exempt except for overnight trips, or trips that exceed 100 air miles. Log books are rarely necessary for the district’s field trips, but the department is aware of the responsibility and occasional need for a driver to log his or her time. A third-party administrator, Addiction Medicine Consulting Inc. in Redlands, California, manages the federal DOT drug and alcohol-testing program. The supervisor is the only district employee who receives direct communication from the company and recently received training to detect and test drivers who are reasonably suspected of being impaired. This supervisor training is required. All the drivers are now properly enrolled. The supervisor is part of the pool, because she is also a commercial driver. The district should consider properly managing the notification of the supervisor if she is ever selected for a random drug or alcohol test. Dual notifications with the HR Department or some other mechanism should be used to ensure that the supervisor will test when she is selected for a random drug or alcohol test. The district’s driver handbook is quite old. The current version is dated March 9, 1998, and the department is in the process of updating it. 13CCR 1229 requires drivers to demonstrate proficiency on any commercial vehicle before driving it unsupervised on the road; therefore, records must be maintained listing each vehicle and which drivers are proficient on it. The district has these documents and updates them when required. The regulation does not specify who will provide the training and declare proficiency; therefore, other drivers in the department often do so. Although 13CCR1229 does not specify who may declare proficiency, the supervisor or instructor would logically accomplish this task. The district has not provided substantive special education driver training in a significant amount of time. The drivers could benefit from this training. The training should include information on the types of disabilities and behaviors exhibited by the district’s special education students and how they may be addressed and mitigated on a school bus. The special education director indicated that the SELPA could give this type of training. The district nurse could also provide some of the training as could district psychologists. The department provides annual in-service training at the beginning of each school year during the six available days when drivers are paid. The contract driver instructor only provides a rela- tively small amount of training during that time. As noted in a previous section, these six days could be reduced. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 25 DRIVER TRAINING AND SAFETY The contract driver instructor has trained nine drivers in the past two years, this being neces- sary because a rather large number of retirements occurred over this time. The contract driver instructor has been extremely instrumental in ensuring the viability of the department, making certain the district has an adequate number of certified drivers to provide transportation service. The contract driver instructor is experienced, and charges a reasonable price for her services. As noted in a previous section, the district would benefit from having its own instructors instead of depending on a contracted individual. Instruction is a critical need for any school transportation department since lack of such service could severely hamper the district’s ability to adequately staff driver positions and keep drivers up to date on their training requirements. As suggested in the previous section, the district should train the supervisor to be a delegated behind-the-wheel instructor and select another driver to become a state-certified school bus driver instructor, pending the potential return of the lead driver. The state-certified school bus driver instructor would be the only position that could legally document the training. Staff members who become certified instructors do not need to have a regular position, but could be paid for the service at a differential rate only when the training is provided. The supervisor does ride-alongs with drivers, but has no form to memorialize these reviews. A sample is attached as Appendix G to this report. Driver recruitment is an issue for school districts throughout the state. The department utilizes banners placed at several schools to encourage individuals to consider employment as a school bus driver. To advertise jobs, the Human Resource Department uses EdJoin, a recruiting website used by most school districts in California; however, this site is not optimal for school bus driver recruitment because candidates typically do not seek a job there. The district should consider publishing notices in school newsletters and local newspaper advertisements to attract and recruit school bus drivers. Recommendations The district should: 1. Update the Transportation Safety Plan to include child check procedures. 2. Establish accident review and driver retraining practices. 3. Update the driver handbook. 4. Create dual notification for all DOT drug and alcohol testing to ensure that the supervisor is properly notified since she is also in the pool. 5. Establish practices and individuals to perform proficiency training. 6. Provide regular, topical training for special education drivers. 7. Evaluate the actual need for beginning of the year in-service training. 8. Utilize a behind-the-wheel check-ride evaluation form. 9. Utilize other creative bus driver recruitment strategies. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 26 DRIVER TRAINING AND SAFETY Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 27 TECHNOLOGY Technology The Vehicle Maintenance Department utilizes an old version of a school bus maintenance software called “Trapeze.” This is the only transportation software utilized in the department. However, it is not fully utilized since repairs and inspections are entered in the program, and paper work orders are printed. Those orders are then given to the clerk III, and data is hand- written on a summary sheet. This system provides little useful management information for the department. As previously reported, bus routes are typed in Microsoft Word or Excel. This is generally adequate for a school district with few bus routes. A bus routing program is generally not warranted until a district has approximately 50 bus routes, and the program would require an additional staff person to learn it and use it regardless of the number of bus routes. These bus routing programs are extremely complex. Another multimodule transportation software program is available that could integrate a simple routing program, student database, bus pass processing database, vehicle maintenance database, driver training database, and field trip module, all with reporting features that would provide valuable management information. At least one on the market is reasonably priced and easy to operate. Recommendation The district should: 1. Research transportation software programs to determine the cost/benefit for the district. RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 28 TECHNOLOGY Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 2299 APPENDDRICAEFST Appendices A: Sample Contract for Parent “in-lieu” Transportation B: CDE Guidance Letter C: Sample Decision Tree and Checklist D: Sample Transportation Request Form E: Sample Transportation Safety Plan F: Table of Recent District Accidents G: Sample Ride Along Data Sheet H: Study Agreement RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 3300 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3311 APPENDDRICAEFST Appendix A - Sample Contract for Parent “in-lieu” Transportation RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 3322 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3333 APPENDDRICAEFST Appendix B - CDE Guidance Letter RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 3344 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3355 APPENDDRICAEFST Appendix C - Sample Decision Tree and Checklist RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 3366 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3377 APPENDDRICAEFST Appendix D - Sample Transportation Request Form RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 3388 DARPPAEFNTDICES Appendix E - Sample Transportation Safety Plan Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 3399 APPENDDRICAEFST RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 4400 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 4411 APPENDDRICAEFST RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 4422 DARPPAEFNTDICES Appendix F - Table of Recent District Accidents School Bus Accidents/Incidents DATE BUS # & STUDENTS DRIVER SENT FOR DETAILS Driver Trainer taken for DRIVER ON BOARD? DRUG TEST Post-accident training 6/5/2015 Bus #8 Rim bus rear ended vehicle 10/9/2015 Bus #7 Motorcycle struck bus 8/23/16 Bus #12 Yes - 17 No Driver backed into light pole in Yes district parking lot when turning around 11/8/16 Bus # 12 Yes - 36 No Bus hit side of hill with rocks as No going around corner. Claimed car came into her lane 12/20/16 Bus #48 No No Bus slide into car No 12/21/16 Bus #52 Yes - 24 No Bus hit sign and rock turning around No 1/26/17 Bus #12 Yes – 16 No Bus hit snow bank when turning No around 3/15/17 Bus #1 Yes No Per driver Branch dropped and hit No upper eyebrow of bus. Per driver CHP declined to investigate 3/22/17 Bus #1 Yes No Driver hit right mirror on utility pole Yes (mirror broke) 5/4/17 Bus # 2 Yes -29 Yes Vehicle his side of bus on Daley No Canyon 9/6/17 Bus #53 No YES Bus rear ended vehicle Yes 9/7/17 Bus # 9 Yes -35 No Car hit Bus in high school parking lot No 10/27/17 Bus #7 Yes – 12 No Bus his rear end of bus on wall with Yes tail swing 12/18/17 Bus #6 Yes – 12 No Driver turned too sharp and went No over curb and child hit head on window 1/9/18 Bus #51 Yes – 38 No Driver rear ended car No 1/29/18 Bus #5 No No Car scrapped Bus when exiting VOE Scheduled to happen School with driver trainer next visit Note: Every accident is different. If I feel additional training is needed I will schedule with Merit to take out and fill out our form. 2015 and 2016 there might have been more, but this is all I can find. It seems we could value to have a driver trainer on site. Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 4433 APPENDDRICAEFST Appendix G- Sample Ride-Along Data Sheet RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 4444 DARPPAEFNTDICES Appendix H - Study Agreement Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 4455 APPENDDRICAEFST RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 4466 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM 4477 APPENDDRICAEFST RIM OF THE WORLD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 4488 DARPPAEFNTDICES Fiscal crisis & ManageMent assistance teaM