What will school bus service look like when schools re-open? What will it take to get those yellow buses we all miss back on the roads?
In this episode, two California school transportation experts lead us on an adventure into “Bus World.” We explore how school districts are planning to meet the many challenges posed by COVID-19 so that California students can be safely transported to and from their school campuses.
Guests Matt Sanchez, Director of Transportation for Elk Grove USD and Kevin Sellstrom, Transportation Specialist in the El Dorado Union High School District, illuminate key issues and considerations for school communities, including:
Bus drivers are the most visible and integral part of the school transportation team. We discuss whether the role of drivers will change during the pandemic. Plus, many districts in the state and nation face a serious school bus driver shortage. Matt describes the training and support drivers may need to help their students adjust to changes in school bus services -- and he offers an impromptu call to those who may be interested in a rewarding career as a school bus driver.
We also explore essential operations that school district transportation departments have carried out during the time of campus closures, including the vital role of mechanics. All along the route, Matt reminds us to embrace a mindset of flexibility during these difficult and uncertain times.
We also include a brief "explainer" to help you gain a better understanding about key elements of California's school bus system, including what school districts are required to provide for students.
Coronavirus Response and School Reopening Guidance from California Department of Education
ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Matt Sanchez has led the Elk Grove USD transportation department since 2018; he also served in the district previously between 1988-2002. In addition, he served as a Transportation Consultant for the California Department of Education for 11 years, and also as Director of Transportation for Rocklin USD. Matt is currently the CASBO State Chair for Transportation, and also serves on the Communications, Advocacy and Public Relations Subcommittee for STARTS, the Student Transportation Aligned for Return to School, which includes collaboration between the National Association for Pupil Transportation, National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services and the National School Transportation Association. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies with a minor in business form CSU Sacramento. (mmsanche@egusd.net)
Kevin Sellstrom began his career in education as a special education instructional assistant. He has also served as a bus driver, scheduling technician, MOT supervisor and transportation specialist in multiple California School districts. (ksellstrom@eduhsd.k12.ca.us)
About CASBO
The California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) is the premier resource for professional development and business best practices for California's school business leaders.
About your series guide
Paul Richman is a public education advocate and consultant. Contact him at edfundingca@gmail.com. We value your feedback!
What will school bus service look like when schools re-open? What will it take to get those yellow buses we all miss back on the roads?
In this episode, two California school transportation experts lead us on an adventure into “Bus World.” We explore how school districts are planning to meet the many challenges posed by COVID-19 so that California students can be safely transported to and from their school campuses.
Guests Matt Sanchez, Director of Transportation for Elk Grove USD and Kevin Sellstrom, Transportation Specialist in the El Dorado Union High School District, illuminate key issues and considerations for school communities, including:
Bus drivers are the most visible and integral part of the school transportation team. We discuss whether the role of drivers will change during the pandemic. Plus, many districts in the state and nation face a serious school bus driver shortage. Matt describes the training and support drivers may need to help their students adjust to changes in school bus services -- and he offers an impromptu call to those who may be interested in a rewarding career as a school bus driver.
We also explore essential operations that school district transportation departments have carried out during the time of campus closures, including the vital role of mechanics. All along the route, Matt reminds us to embrace a mindset of flexibility during these difficult and uncertain times.
We also include a brief "explainer" to help you gain a better understanding about key elements of California's school bus system, including what school districts are required to provide for students.
Coronavirus Response and School Reopening Guidance from California Department of Education
ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Matt Sanchez has led the Elk Grove USD transportation department since 2018; he also served in the district previously between 1988-2002. In addition, he served as a Transportation Consultant for the California Department of Education for 11 years, and also as Director of Transportation for Rocklin USD. Matt is currently the CASBO State Chair for Transportation, and also serves on the Communications, Advocacy and Public Relations Subcommittee for STARTS, the Student Transportation Aligned for Return to School, which includes collaboration between the National Association for Pupil Transportation, National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services and the National School Transportation Association. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies with a minor in business form CSU Sacramento. (mmsanche@egusd.net)
Kevin Sellstrom began his career in education as a special education instructional assistant. He has also served as a bus driver, scheduling technician, MOT supervisor and transportation specialist in multiple California School districts. (ksellstrom@eduhsd.k12.ca.us)
About CASBO
The California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) is the premier resource for professional development and business best practices for California's school business leaders.
About your series guide
Paul Richman is a public education advocate and consultant. Contact him at edfundingca@gmail.com. We value your feedback!
Transcript for Back on the Roads: California School District Transportation Leaders Prepare to Restart School Bus Service
Category: California Education
Paul Richman, host:
This week we’re hopping on the bus, so to speak, to explore how school districts around the state plan to meet the many challenges posed by COVID-19 so that California students can get safely to and from their school campuses when they re-open. Here’s one of our guests, Kevin Sellstrom, describing perhaps the single most pressing issue related to school buses:
Kevin Sellstrom, Transportation Specialist, El Dorado Union High School District:
A typical 40-foot bus in California will have 28 seats on it or 14 rows. And that's rated for anywhere from 80-84 students. And if you look at that 14 rows, if the CDC’s requirements are followed, then that puts one student in every row. That's 14 kids for as an example for us, we go out, some of our communities will go an hour, one way out to a rural mountain community and pick up 50, maybe 60 kids and bring them to school on one bus. And that's, it's safe and comfortable and works for everybody as best it can. But now we're looking at, we need six, seven, eight buses to just bring that one group of students into school. That's not going to happen. And in a district or department -- any department in California just doesn't have those resources. So, we're going to have to find some creative ways to stagger how those kids come in on those buses.
Intro music.
Paul:
Welcome back to Adventures in Ed Funding, the series presented by CASBO, the California Association of School Business Officials. My name’s Paul Richman and I’m your series guide. Since the pandemic hit, we've featured stories about different ways school districts, educators and leaders are stepping up to confront difficult new realities in order to continue serving their students, families and communities. In this episode, two California school business officials help us explore the vital world of school transportation. What’s involved in running an effective bus system, what are the current challenges, and -- what will it take to get those iconic yellow buses that we all miss, back on our roads.
We’re pleased to have on the line Matt Sanchez, Director of Transportation for Elk Grove USD in Sacramento County, and Kevin Sellstrom, Transportation Specialist in the El Dorado Union High School District in El Dorado County. Both of their districts serve immense geographic territories. Like nearly every one of the state’s 1,000 districts, they experience common challenges and unique needs. I asked Matt and Kevin to give us a quick sense of the districts where they currently work. Matt first. In addition to his current role in Elk Grove, Matt Sanchez has served as a transportation leader in two other districts and – prior to that he served nearly 15 years as a school bus driver instructor in Elk Grove and another decade as a Bus Driver Training Program Specialist at the California Department of Education. Matt is also currently the Chair of the CASBO Transportation Professional Council.
Thanks for joining us, Matt. If you would, please tell us a few things about your district’s transportation operation…
Matt Sanchez, Transportation Director, Elk Grove Unified School District:
For Elk Grove Unified School Sistrict, our transportation department services about 6,000 “gen ed” students, and about 2,000 special ed students. We cover about 320 square miles. We have a year-round schedule; we have a modified traditional schedule. We have a very complex transportation system. Basically, we have about 110 special ed routes. We have about 40 gen ed routes. We provide field trips services. We oversee white van transportation for our district. It's a very large district; it's very challenging with special ed growth. Special ed growth has been something that has been constant over the years, and it's been a really, really big challenge when you combine that growth with the severe driver shortage that everyone is experiencing in the nation.
Paul:
And Kevin, welcome to you as well. Tell us a bit more about your background and your district.
Kevin:
Well, thanks Paul. And oddly enough, or ironically enough, I spent the first 22 years of my career working for Elk Grove Unified actually back in the day, spent a little bit of time working with Mr. Sanchez. And that's a small world, it turns out to be.
Paul:
Yeah. I feel like I should tell you both, I used to live in Elk Grove too, just to complete the circle.
Kevin:
Yes, so I worked there. I worked in the classroom for about 10 years, serving students with special needs and came into this weird transportation world that I never figured I'd ever find myself in and let alone stick with. And once I got here, I just, uh, I found that as we say, there was more yellow in my blood than I thought. I really enjoyed serving kids and schools and our communities and the logistical challenges are a good way to stretch your mind and keep it young. I think as much as they, they might stress us out on occasion. I've spent the last seven years working for a small rural school district in the Central Valley. And since this past winter have been here at El Dorado High School District. Here in El Dorado, it's a mixture: We have some suburban neighborhoods that we serve, uh, fairly dense areas combined with a lot of rural routes and small rural schools. We're almost 1,800 square miles serving most of El Dorado County from the Sacramento County line up to Tahoe. We serve about 8,000 students. Most of our bus routes run between 120-200 miles a day, and a lot of them run the roads that Matt and others use for mountain training. We run a lot of one lane mountain roads up, with a cliff on one side and the mountain on the other, bringing kids to and from school. It can be unique in the summer and challenging at best in the winter time. But we also, by the same token, have a lot of really fantastic and dedicated drivers that do those every day and come to work an hour early in the winter to chain up and go out and pickup kids on the side of a snowbank to get them to school. The dedication is really a big deal for our community.
Paul:
Right, and so, and I know I don't really have to remind both of you of this, but in March, things changed abruptly across the state and country. Prior to March, things were probably just rolling along in the school bus world and –
Kevin:
And then just all of a sudden, someone pulled the emergency brake and here we find ourselves sitting, looking at each other, trying to figure out what's going to happen next. And when is it going to happen?
Matt:
Right when it occurred, what happened is school districts had to define basically, what are your essential functions? And once you define what those essential functions are, then it's adhering to the stay at home orders that existed, making sure that employees understand that they're still getting paid and that they were at home, but at any time they were in the readiness to work. Our district created in our transportation department, a Google classroom and Google Meet opportunities to stay in contact, so that our drivers continue to get information and training throughout this period of time. These essential functions Elk Grove has defined include our mechanics – mechanics are essential because COVID-19 did not provide any type of exemption from compliance with Title 13 regulations to systematically inspect all the school buses – or an vehicle that a schooldistrict uses to transport students, or not just students, just any vehicle that they have, whether it's a lawnmower or a golf cart or a white van or a school bus. That system has to be continuously monitored through this COVID-19; we have had CHP inspections during COVID-19 and our mechanics have been working throughout COVID-19 with a modified schedule to be able to accommodate their need to stay at home to the greatest extent possible.
Paul:
And Matt, just to make sure we’re clear on that, because I had no idea: Even though districts were not running their bus routes when campuses were closed, they were and are required still have to make sure all vehicles are being serviced and maintained?
Matt:
Correct. So, frankly, CHP has been quite relieved that our district and many other districts have continued the cycle that they have created for vehicle inspection, because once you disrupt that cycle, you can't just start a new cycle, all buses being started to be inspected at the same time period. The only way to do this is do a rotation of inspection to be able to provide ample amount of equipment to do the job.
Another essential function that we had was training. Where most people probably are experiencing a moderate driver shortage, Elk Grove is severe. So, our training department was deemed necessary and we continued training up until the point where CHP decided to discontinue all testing. And then since we couldn't test, there was no reason to be able to train. Our scheduling department was also essential. They haven't come in; they have flex schedules and they’re working from home, but the scheduling department is critical to be able to prepare for a return to service because scheduling and routing has to be done prior to the first day of transporting students, which means they have to return.
Paul:
Kevin, anything to add about what it has been like with campuses closed?
Kevin:
At first, our staff, as Matt said, we made sure that everybody was taken care of. We have to take care of that family that serves our families. And I think our districts as a whole in California, did a pretty good job of that. They, our staff were at home, but a lot of them after a while started calling and saying, okay, what can we do to help? What's out there that you need us for? Which was kind of exciting in a sense, to see the enthusiasm, but at the same time, there just wasn't a whole lot. Every district is different. We did pull in some of our staff to help deliver supplies to families, a mission that they've never been pressed into service with before, you know, school books and Chromebooks and meals to some of our remote families that just couldn't get in, or were being cared for by guardians, who aren't able to transport them into town somewhere to get a meal, or to get their supplies or whatever. And that required that we keep our fleet running.
Paul:
That has been especially inspiring to me, the many ways all district and school staff have stepped up in creative ways during this crisis.
Kevin:
It's a bright spot in what's been kind of a weird stage in our history, so it has been very positive and it's nice to see those positive interactions. The community appreciates it. And I think our staff appreciates that they're able to do something positive that supports the communities we serve.
Music interlude.
Paul:
We’re getting close to that question I know is on so many people’s minds – it’s the elephant in the room, or the elephant on the bus, if you will – what might school transportation and bus service look like when school starts back up again? Will buses be running? How will we keep students who ride on them safe from the virus? These are difficult questions and – I promise Kevin and Matt will shed light on them – but I thought it might be valuable, especially for those not as steeped in school operations, to provide a bit more of an explainer about school transportation in general in California. And, just because we can, we’re putting part of this explainer to music, while Matt, and then Kevin, share some more of the basics about what they call “Bus World”:
A Brief Explainer About Key Elements of School District Transportation in California (to music)
Matt:
So, the basic elements of a safe transportation system, it’s a group effort between three main agencies, the California Department of Education, California Department of Motor Vehicles, and the California Highway Patrol. Those are the state agencies that create a curriculum that license and that test and inspect facilities and buses. Once you have those three agencies working together, now it's each school district's decision through school board approval to decide if they're going to provide transportation services for their district and their community. Each district looks at what is mandated by law to provide and what is not. Transportation that's mandated throughout California is if you have a student with special needs and in that Individual Education Plan (IEP) that they have, it's been defined that transportation must be provided for them to access their educational day, then it's a mandate that that transportation be provided by a means that could be a school bus. That's mandated transportation and you have also homeless or foster youth that could be mandated. Then gen ed transportation, your field trips, your offloads, redirects – these are all types of transportation that will be defined by the district for how they're going to provide that service. And that is dependent upon the needs of the community and the resources available that that district has.
Paul:
So not all districts are required to provide transportation to all students and not all of them do? But of course, in districts, such as the two of yours that cover such vast geographical territories, if there weren't buses, kids wouldn't be able to get to school, right?
Kevin:
Very much so. And you see that a lot in rural communities, they tend to be very strongly supportive of those transportation operations because they just, like you said, they just wouldn't be able to get to school. Kids would not get an education, and the impact on the ADA (Average Daily Attendance) of the school districts can be a big ticket, especially in a small rural school district. But it is, as Matt said, it's up to each governing board aside from special education, whether they do or don't and what extensive transportation they offer. And, i's a topic for a whole ‘nother discussion, but the way that transportation is funded in California is unique in general and kind of is, is funded on a model that was set in 1983, and it hasn't changed since then. And unfortunately, as costs of operating schools have gone up, districts have been forced to make some occasionally or frequently challenging decisions -- what levels of service they're going to provide. And that was before you throw in all the complications of our school closures and the COVID-19 challenges.
Paul:
And Matt, your district is one of the largest in the state, with nearly 60,000 students in total, so in size and scale it’s maybe not so representative, but -- can you give us a quick sense of the different types of positions and how many of them it takes to run a large and robust district transportation operation?
Matt:
We have a staff of about 240. We have 10 mechanics that run two different shifts -- a swing shift and a morning shift, and those two shifts focus on both preventative maintenance and repairs. And then we have basically about 20 staff members that are comprised of different types of schedulers, special ed scheduling, charter scheduling, van scheduling, field trips scheduling, gen ed, special ed – really we have people that are specialists within their area. We have about four supervisors that oversee all the driving staff. We have about 45 bus driver attendants that assist the driver. The amount of attendants we have, that's a direct result of the need and the increasing growth of students with special needs on our buses. And so, we, have a lot of attendants compared to other districts. We have roughly 160 drivers. When we ended our service because of COVID-19, we were 22 school bus driver position short, when you add absenteeism on top of that, it creates a real challenge to be able to service our community in a timely manner that's really expected by both the parent and our department. So I'm actually excited to be able to pull back and look at what we can provide and whom we’re going to provide it to and make it so that the service comes out far superior than what we did before -- and I truly believe that's what's going to happen with a lot of school districts.
Paul:
And that, as they say, brings us up to now. And where we are now, in the second week of June 2020, is amid a global health crisis and economic crisis. Many people desperately yearn for the new school year to start back up as planned, but they also desperately do not want to put our students and staff at risk. So, Kevin, let me start with you. From the transportation perspective, what are the top considerations and/or challenges for going back to school?
Kevin:
Well, there's quite a few of them and it's, it's no different than our school campuses. There's a lot of different guidelines, recommendations that have been coming out that we're going to have to look towards. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has given recommendations for spacing on the bus that does its best to follow the spirit of the, the social distancing or physical distancing requirements. Today, the eighth (of June) we just got a new set of recommendations from the CDE, California Department of Education, they put out a fabulous guideline for school districts that has an awful lot of detail in it, and part of that focuses on transportation. There's going to be a lot of scheduling changes that transportation is going to have to work hand in hand with our school administrators as to what school is going to look like, and then we can come in behind and figure out how to get kids to that school once we know what it is. Some are going to have maybe staggered schedules or alternating days or whatever each respective district does. We're going to have to be able to accommodate that with buses that, three months ago, would have seated 50, 60 up to 84 passengers legally. Now we're looking at putting eight, 10, maybe 12 passengers on that 40-foot bus in order to meet those requirements. I think CDC’s requirements that you can get 14, if you go every other row, 14 students on that bus. So, you know, how are we going to get those large groups of students to school? It's going to be a challenge that every district is going to have to tackle just a little differently, and it doesn't give a solid answer for anyone right there, but really coordinating those schedules is going to be huge.
Paul:
Would you maybe just run the same bus routes multiple times?
Kevin:
That's one of the things that we're looking at, yeah, or we may have to have it where we stagger days. So half of the community comes on Monday and Wednesday and half comes on Tuesday, Thursday, and then say every Friday is an alternating day, you know, A-B days or whatever you want to call them. It's some of the discussions that are happening here in El Dorado County and happening across the state is, you know, things just along that line. Sometimes for elementary you can have a morning and an afternoon where that kinder schedule might carry through many or all of the elementary grades, but either way we do that, we're increasing costs, too, you know, that might be two round trips a day to each given community and the district now might need three or four in order to accommodate that distancing. But by the same token districts are having that conversation in the classroom. We can't fit 25 or 35 students in a 960 square foot classroom, either. So the discussions are going to go hand in hand, but they're going to be challenging ones.
Paul:
Yeah. And I like to say school district officials are great at doing more with less and being creative, but Matt, I mean, this, this is a tall order. What are your thoughts?
Matt:
So, we're spending June as a time for each department – maintenance/operations, special education, transportation, curriculum -- there's like 14 different departments within the district that are running tactical teams three days a week for the month of June to try and define what is our essential function? Once we prioritize our essential function and we also define which students need our particular service the most -- and we categorize that from one down to 10, who needs the service the most. Then we have to look at capacity. What is our capacity to provide service under the current guidelines that we have? That is going to drive the end result of what we can accomplish as a transportation department to provide service for the students who need it the most, and then try and expand slowly back to services for people who need it, but maybe not as much as the student with special needs with an IEP, where it's mandated for transportation, or there's no way for them to access their educational day, all the way down to the other end where it’s just, you know, gen ed transportation, where there may be a safe walking path to get to and from school. Those services may be ones that may be delayed until capacity is there to provide that service. Then you have gen ed that's not mandated, but like Kevin says, it's in a rural area and it's hard to access a walking path to access that school when there's a greater challenge. Those are decisions that local school boards have to make on how to best use their resources, to accommodate again, the students with the greatest needs to access their education.
Kevin:
And that's one of the considerations that we've taken in here in El Dorado County and our high school district is that we've had to change some of those non-service areas, broaden the, you know, a lot of places, call them a walk circle or walk distance, for our gen ed students just to free up the resources, so we can pick up those rural students, both from a fiscal standpoint with the cost, but also from logistical standpoint, just flat being able to have enough buses to bring in the kids who really need it the most. And a lot of districts may have to look into that.
Matt:
You know, Paul, another thing I want to add to what I had said, as we're trying to find out what our capacity is, and Kevin's touched on this a little bit already, but just to understand the magnitude of what we're talking about with a district as large as Elk Grove: We're transporting roughly 6,000 gen ed kids and 2,000 special ed students. If we were needing to start up transportation off of today's recommendations at one student every other seat, our capacity is to be able to transport 1,300 students,
Kevin:
One-eighth of what you did prior to.
Matt:
Right. So if there was a lessening of social distance requirement, let's just say we could possibly evolve into being able to put one student on each bench. And we would be able to transport about 2,300 students, meaning we could transport the students that would need it the most, being our special ed transportation, students, plus about 300-400 gen ed students. So under current recommendations of every other seat, we're really challenged to try and find a way to service the students that not only need it the most, but is mandated for us to give them transportation through the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and through the IEP that we have to provide these services, yet have an inability to be able to have space on a bus to transport them.
Paul:
Yeah.
Matt:
It creates a real challenge. And the goal for me this month in June has been to take off my brain that puts parameters and say, anything's possible, because that's really the job that we have to do is stop thinking about what we've always done and what we think are the limitations that we've always had and blow that up and say, every single day, we're going to learn new things about what we may or may not be able to do with our service. And we have to be prepared to go left or right in an instant, and with the mindset of being as flexible with every department that we're working with to support the overall whole of that student getting to school for their educational day. And the one thing I'm wanting to make sure for our transportation department is the increased fluidity and the increased unknown must not take away our focus from the safety of getting kids to and from school through just the simple things as loading a student on and off the bus and making sure that they're safe every single day.
Paul:
On the safety and health issues, um, so we talked about social distancing and the challenges that pose, but what about, uh, the cleaning and disinfecting of the buses?
Kevin:
That's going to be something that, uh, it may come easier than we think, Our buses are not dissimilar from the classroom. Although they look different, they're made of different materials, but it's still a touch surface and a seating surface kids are going to sit down on. In most cases, school district custodial staff have the right cleaning supplies or are getting them now. Those transportation departments just need to, if they haven't already, work hand in hand with their other departments and use those same supplies on the bus, or make sure that they find stuff that won't damage the buses, but serves the same goal. And that's what we've done here is to sit down and have that conversation with our M & O department: How are you sanitizing the classroom? What chemicals do you have? What training do staff need to have for those? How are we going to put that on and do that? And then we're going to do the same thing on the bus. When it comes in from a route, it gets sanitized, wiped down or sprayed and wiped. The staff have all the same PPEs that are our school staff are going to have, but at the same time, there are some things that are very different. Yes, we can have a dispenser here that's just like what your custodian has at the school campus, and they have all the mops and supplies, but going down the road, or if we get back into the field trips or we're in between routes where we've dropped off the first group, and now we're going to the second, we still have to have a way to sanitize that bus and a five-gallon bucket of disinfectant sitting in a school bus isn't going to fly.
Paul:
Mmm-hmm.
Kevin:
So we've also had to creatively find things that are going to be unique to transportation. And we've got wipes that our drivers can do that, so we don't have to worry about having liquids a child might get into. We also need to focus on the communication to our families and communities that we're doing these things so that they're not surprised or scared to see something different, but also so they're confident and comfortable that the school bus is going to be a safe place for them. We're going to protect them when they get on the bus from being physically injured. But we're also going to do everything that we can to protect them from contracting something that's not going to be positive to that child or the kids in our school.
Paul:
And Matt, are there any other key considerations or challenges that you're really grappling with, as if this isn’t not enough, but…
Matt:
Yes, I think the startup of a typical school year is challenging every single year for transportation because of the challenge of getting timely and accurate information in regard to special ed students that will be participating in their programs and the location of where those programs will be. Successful routing and scheduling of our students takes a cooperative effort between transportation and special ed departments. Special ed departments have a very huge challenge with the quantity of work that's on their plates. And it's very challenging for them to get timely and accurate information from the community to be able to make sure that they can pass that on to transportation. So, my point here is this: In a typical year, we need four weeks’ worth of preparation for scheduling prior to sending that bus out on the first day to pick those kids up. This is, uh, an abnormal unusual year obviously, and there's no way we're going to have four weeks of preparation time once we get information, I'm not going to even say accurate or timely information because I think it's a given that that's not going to happen. We're going to have to do better and be more creative to try and, as a transportation department, to be proactive, to reach out to the families through, um – what we're working on right now is a survey just for our special ed parents, a survey that would say, are you planning to come back to school? And if you are coming back to school, do you plan on using the school bus service? We need to have an idea of the amount of students that plan on using the service. And I think that school districts need to understand that the timeliness of starting the routes is a challenge. if we don't have accurate information and the process is not adhered to, to make sure that all services are in place to support this student -- emergency contact information, et cetera, et cetera. So, I think sometimes transportation departments are looked at as rigid, but the risk level is at an extreme high, and that services can only be provided when we make sure that once we pick up that student in front of that house and that student is now in our care, that we can care for that student with having every resource that we need in front of us.
Another point here is basically, Paul, compassion for your transportation department to get things routed as quickly as possible -- and they will do that, but routing and scheduling of students with information that now they're being provided, provided as of this current today, whatever this current day is -- that transportation may not start sometimes between five to eight days after we receive all that information. There are some departments that can make it happen within a day or two, but that's going to be your probably smaller districts. And all the information that's been submitted is accurate and complete,
Paul:
There's clearly so much intersection and need to collaborate with the other departments, the, the instructional, special education, obviously the, on the financial side, people wouldn't normally think about that, but the interconnectedness of transportation, it's very significant.
Kevin:
It is. A lot of times transportation departments sometimes work in a silo. They're a department that has the, get it done attitude, which is what makes them successful. But sometimes they do that very internally and, and there isn't always maybe ideal communication or we're all moving so fast at the start of the year and a good year that it's hard to do that. And it's going to be really critical this year in particular with so many things changing and changing so quickly that we really do all sit down at that same round table and, and coordinate.
Matt:
One thing that I that's on my mind still is, if people are listening that are not in transportation, trying to get a sense of what our culture is and what our needs are, is that in order to come back and just start providing service again, transportation really needs to be in on discussions or the results of those discussions as soon as possible relative to bell time changes, program location changes and special education projection lists on which students will need to be transported this school year. Those things are going to be critical to be able to have an understanding of how to route and schedule these students in the timely manner that people are going to be expecting.
Music interlude
Paul:
I know this has been a slightly longer adventure than usual – but ride along with us a little longer; we’re almost there – and it’s time to talk about…bus drivers!
Kevin:
Those bus drivers, uh, are kind of unspoken angels in a lot of senses -- the support and the informal counseling that they give those kids. We're, we're out there on the road, 30, 45 minutes, an hour-and-a-half with a student twice a day, getting them to and from school. And those drivers really do a lot more than I think the public recognizes towards the social and emotional wellbeing of our kids, keeping them well-rounded, keeping them in contact. And when they come back to school, there's no way that our students aren't going to be impacted by what they've been through the last few months or six months, whatever it winds up being. The drivers are really going to have to be on their toes, and they're going to benefit from any training we can give them, and the support that we as a school district can give them to be able to back those kids up.
Paul:
Yeah. And I want to explore the role of the drivers even more, and Matt, I know you've done training statewide for drivers. How do you see the role of drivers changing, during this time?
Matt:
Well, I think that there's going to be some changes but the fundamental position of the school bus drivers, it's going stay intact. I think the main thing is I'm wanting to focus on is, is how they're communicating with the students and the parents, because it can be very challenging if they're going to need to wear some type of a mask or face covering. And the connection as a school bus driver is eye contact. While we're driving, there are a lot of things that we communicate to kids without even opening our mouths, um, quick glances, quick nods of the head or shakes of the head. these are things that are ways that we communicate, but we're going to need to be more verbal. We're going to need to be able to communicate in ways that we're not used to as school bus drivers and in trying to get that connection with them (students) because before COVID-19, most of our students, unless they were new to the bus environment, were comfortable approaching the driver and getting on the bus. Today, there's going to be fear with these kids coming to the bus, knowing what they know, and then also seeing a driver they may not be familiar with a mask on. So our focus needs to be, how do we make our bus environment approachable to our students so that they feel comfortable that we're here to support them? And that it can be a fun and engaging environment again on that school bus. But that starts with the driver and the driver's connection with those students. And so our back to school in-service needs to be focused on training. I don't think there's a better way to do it, but to combine it with PBIS training, Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, and finding ways to recognize students and reinforce behaviors that are responsible behaviors, both in the school and on the school bus. So those are things that we would be focusing on trying to change, while trying to also maintain the level of safety, our drivers have always provided.
Paul:
And this may be a bit of an odd question, but are drivers going to be expected to, um, help, enforce the physical distancing on buses? I mean, we're going to try to spread the kids out, but kids will be kids, most people feel, so will that be a job of drivers, do you think?
Matt:
I think that that's going to be a challenge like it is right now, if you go to a restaurant or a Starbucks, you have people that have different ideas, or they have different opinions of what we're doing and why we're doing it right now. And there are different levels of respect. And then we have students that we're transporting that will have absolutely no idea what six feet means, um, they don't know what six feet mean, they don't get that. We would have to like physically go outside the bus with some chalk and to mark two spots and say, this is what six feet is, please maintain this.
These are guidelines and recommendations, and we're certainly not going to deny a student their access to a free and appropriate public education based off of an inability to follow a guideline, but we're going to implement these guidelines to the best we can, and we're going to try and teach our students and our staff the best we can to adhere to those standards for the safety of everyone. It demands us to have continued flexibility and understanding and subjectivity to the greatest extent support each student with their individual needs.
Paul:
You mentioned earlier too that in your district and across the state, we are experiencing a shortage of bus drivers. So, these are some jobs that are actually available now – in an economy that has lost a lot of jobs…
Matt:
Yes, and certainly now that we have a green light to start training again, the California Department of Education has been very cooperative and making sure that we have flexibility to start doing online Zoom or Google-meet training, which was never allowed before. So that provides us an opportunity to move forward, to try and grasp some of these people who are looking for employment, especially employment that's meaningful, where you're working with kids and that has the flexibility for a family with vacation times and all the days off. We're excited about trying to tap into that unemployment rate and bring in people and strengthening and making a higher quality of, maybe even the culture that we currently have. I'm excited about that, but that's going to be a lot of work, since we slammed into that brick wall, people have not been training drivers. It's been three months with no training going on whatsoever. And when we train, it’s every single month of the year with a lot of overtime for people to just try and keep up and we can't keep up. We are in a real deficit right now, a real need for school bus drivers. And June is the month right here for every school district to be doing whatever they can to connect with their community, to let them know they have a meaningful career available. If you think that you might be interested in working with students and having a job that may be very flexible for your lives, cause, uh, we need to attack this driver shortage because with no driver shortage, most transportation departments would be a cakewalk, providing, services that are outstanding.
Paul:
Great. Well, you sound like a terrific ambassador, so I think we're going to have to have you on the ads…
Kevin:
Shameless plug: There’s jobs available!
Paul:
That's some good news in this very tough economic time.
Kevin:
It reflects the needs across our industry though, really. It's not just us, it's not just Elk Grove. Across the state, you see every school district in California has fewer drivers than they need to run a good operation.
Paul:
You’ve both been incredibly generous with your time. One last important question: Is there anything in particular that you’d like statewide leaders to know or better understand about school transportation? Matt, let’s start with you.
Matt:
I think one of the things that needs to be known is that most school districts have a major encroachment on the general fund to pay for transportation services. So whenever there's a look to cut funding, you're not just hurting the ability to strategize with your transportation department to provide those services with the little funds that are actually provided us, but by not receiving those funds only takes more money out of the classroom for the students, because it's going to be a greater encroachment into the general fund. So I think the most thoughtful thing that we could do is to understand that school transportation has a finite amount of money that it costs to run it and to provide an ample amount of funds in order to provide it. Cause the more we can plan on those funds and to be able to plan on them coming in, the better services we can provide. So, I think funding is a huge problem in California and that's something that's going to have to be sorted out. And unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to be a priority this year. Um, but that's probably something that needs to be thought about and how people look at school transportation in the future, because with fewer funds, that means fewer resources. And with a lot of rural communities out there, those are the first, communities that are going to feel an impact with a lack of service. And that has consequences on people's quality of life.
Paul:
And how about you, Kevin? Anything in particular you’d like statewide leaders to know or better understand about school transportation?
Kevin:
I think the first thing that jumps to mind for us, and just maybe because we were having this discussion in our department this morning – our staff are ready to do what they need to do, whatever that turns out to be. And we have equipment here to do that and systems that are in place, but it's going to be a tough row for us as educators as a whole to do that with the funding challenges that we're all going to face as school districts. And I think if people can know that as our education industry as a whole and transportation in particular are all going to do the best we can, but the patience and flexibility as we try to work our way through that are going to be key. We want for people to understand what we do and our state leaders maybe would benefit from, you know, visiting with the folks in their schools and transportation leaders to see what it is that we need, and for families to know we're doing our best. And it may take a little longer than it usually does to, to go through more paces. But we're going to get there. We totally are. We just may need a little more time to do it.
Blues Music.
Paul:
And that’s going to do it for now – we’ve reached our stop. Many thanks to our special guests, Matt Sanchez and Kevin Sellstrom for sharing their knowledge. And a BIG thanks to you, as always, for joining us! If you like what you’ve heard, please give us a review wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts – and you can also contact us with suggestions at edfundingca@gmail.com
Our series is presented by the California Association of School Business Officials – CASBO. Jamie Dial is the president, and Molly McGee-Hewitt is the CEO and executive director. My name is Paul Richman and I’m your faithful series guide. The one and only Tommy Dunbar handles our sound, editing and creates our original music, including these Coronavirus budget blues which, unfortunately, we’ve still got. But maybe things will get better? Keep an eye out for the latest state budget updates from CASBO at CASBO.org. Until next time, keep focused on kids and – keep your arms and legs safely inside the bus at all times.