BOE Hears From All-Star Transportation, Concerned Parents

By Eliza Hallabeck

After hearing from members of the public for nearly an hour and a half, the Board of Education posed questions to representatives of All-Star Transportation during its meeting on Tuesday, September 4.

Over the first week of the 2012-13 school year, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said she has spent about five hours each day returning e-mails and responses regarding transportation and keeping in contact with All-Star.

As members of the public expressed earlier in the meeting, for some the first week of school has not been smooth. Dr Robinson later told the school board the traffic guard at Newtown High School either quit or retired from his position — she said she was uncertain which as the position is not overseen by the school district — the day before the school year began. Because of this, the first day reportedly had traffic backing up down Route 34, she said.

Since Tuesday, August 28, when school began, a police officer has been stationed at the scene every day, but, as Dr Robinson explained, the district needs an experienced traffic guard for the position. Such a person will help alleviate the situation that has had buses arriving and leaving late for a week, making each day’s bus routes behind schedule from the near beginning.

“That starts everything out,” said Dr Robinson. “It they are late for Tier 1, then they are late for Tier 2. It just escalates the situation.”

Dr Robinson said interviews to fill the traffic guard position continued this week.

Earlier on Tuesday, as members of the public and Richard Dufour, one of All-Star’s three company owners, said during the meeting, parents were notified to have students out to the bus stop about ten minutes earlier on Wednesday, September 5, with individual bus drivers providing definitive times.

The ten-minute change, Dr Robinson said was a “Plan B” to try to get buses to school ahead of traffic at the high school in the morning.

“It’s not a permanent solution,” said Mr Dufour, who added later that such a procedure has helped in other towns where All-Star oversees bus routes.

Mr Dufour also said he has heard from others in Newtown that the level of traffic tends to level out in the first two to three weeks of the school year.

“It worked in the past. It will work again,” said Mr Dufour. “It just take a little management. That last traffic guard was just amazing.”

After Board of Ed Chair Debbie Leidlein questioned start times for the bus routes, Mr Dufour said the message he heard from parents was that about half of the buses were running late. As a measure to help alleviate the traffic issue, he said, a “blanket message” was sent out to parents on Tuesday to have their child at the bus stop ten minutes earlier starting on Wednesday unless their child’s bus driver told them otherwise.

For some students, the buses would still be on time, Mr Dufour said, further explaining some students would be waiting ten minutes longer for their bus to arrive at the time it had previously been arriving.

School board Vice Chair Laura Roche said further communication needs to come from Dr Robinson to parents, and not originate from individual schools.

“I don’t know if this is the right way to go about it,” said Ms Roche, after expressing concern for students who may be at bus stops longer than anticipated.

When questioned about why the bus routes published both on the district’s website and in The Newtown Bee the week before school began do not reflect what is happening, Mr Dufour said the routes were generated six weeks ago. After saying changes are coming in every day, he told the group that estimated updated routes may be available on the district’s website as early as Monday, September 10.

Mr Dufour said the level of phone calls has been going down, but also said it takes about 15 minutes for each phone conversation.

BOE member John Vouros said the situation is an adult problem that is affecting the children in the district.

“This has all got to change, like immediately,” said Mr Vouros.

Mr Dufour also addressed other issues during the meeting. He explained that as his company becomes aware of overcrowding on buses, changes are made to accommodate students, and said if a child is late to come home in the afternoon parents can call All-Star, then their child’s school if the call to All-Star does not get through.

The situation is getting better every day, Mr Dufour said, noting buses left the middle school on time earlier on Tuesday afternoon.

“All of that will pick up day by day,” said Mr Dufour.

The school board also addressed individual concerns stated by members of the public during the meeting with Mr Dufour, including a charge that students were standing on buses due to a lack of seats and another that said one bus from Hawley Elementary School was dropping off children who go to The Children’s Adventure Center after school at the edge of Riverside Road rather than pulling into the driveway. To the second concern, Mr Dufour said he will look into providing a smaller bus for The Children’s Adventure Center drop-off, indicating he would be more comfortable with a smaller bus than a larger bus pulling into the facility’s parking lot.

Henry Abbott Technical School students also spoke during the meeting, asking for their bus to get them to their school in Danbury on time after departing from Newtown.

“The goal is to fix the traffic at the high school,” said Mr Dufour. Adding later, “It is paramount that those buses on Tier 1 start on time.”

Mr Dufour said he would like to see the traffic guard situation fixed, “the sooner the better.”