Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST NYC) Statement on the Current Busing Crisis

Check out our previous blog post on the current busing problems here.  

We in PIST NYC have been saying for eight years that school transportation is run by the wrong people. The fact that the Chancellor has denounced one company and fired the top Office of Pupil Transportation executive is refreshing, but our children’s safe travel and access to education remain at the mercy of companies and executives whose first priority is money.  

Any true overhaul would not just change some faces, but would change the structure and empower the real stakeholders in school busing: the disability community; families of riders of all income levels, races, and languages; the workers who drive and attend to them; educators.  Each of these already have organizations that represent us.

For years, these stakeholders, along with civil rights lawyers, have stated practical methods for fixing everyday school bus route problems. Parents to Improve School Transportation and Amalgamated Transit Union local 1181-1061 have been advocating for a School Bus Bill of Rights to prevent route problems systematically.  

These suggestions are all on record; we have documentation from various City Council hearings, proposals raised to the now-Mayor and now-Public Advocate by Attorney Norman Siegel, notes from multiple parent discussions with Office of Pupil Transportation Director Alexandra Robinson, and a study paid for by the Department of Education itself. Further, at a 2013 mayoral candidates’ forum, Bill DeBlasio agreed to: “an independent commission on school busing, with representation from disability advocates, unions, and parent groups, on standards for bidders, routes, safety, training, and fair labor practices.”  Was Chancellor Carranza advised of any of this?

What is missing from most coverage of the scandal is this: The sad state of New York City school busing got worse after Bloomberg’s administration undermined the Employee Protection Provisions (EPP) that the union had won fair and square.  The companies are impelled to use strict cost-cutting to lower their bids for DOE/OPT contracts; they offer worse pay/benefits and conditions to school bus drivers, attendants and mechanics; hundreds were made jobless or found retirement more appealing; the result is a shortage of trained, experienced bus professionals. [Indeed, a cohort of school bus companies has been in court lately, trying to eliminate EPP altogether against the testimony of parents, workers, and one or two other companies. If they win, we expect more of the same. Even if they lose, these proceedings stall the start of new route contract bids; so OPT recently extended contracts that in theory might not have been renewed otherwise.]

No wonder school bus routes are doubled-up and miserable this Fall! Consider it on a small scale: Any time there is only one driver willing to tolerate a low wage job--where there used to be two drivers enjoying a secure career, that’s when students get picked up late or not at all, have routes which stop at four schools instead of one or two, get yelled at, or worse. When there is little to no investment in climate control or upgrading of vehicles, that’s when children get dehydrated, or their car seats or wheelchairs do not attach properly, or the bus breaks down.

Multiply this by thousands, and you will understand our doubt that merely removing CEO Eric Goldstein or Grandpa’s Bus would make all 150,000 riders safer (We also think the figures and emphasis on background checks are overstated to sensationalize rather than solve the problem).

Any true overhaul of school busing would have a long term goal of public ownership of the bus yards, to stop a chunk of our tax money in the busing budget from going straight to profit for individual companies--to spend it instead on upgrading and “greening” the vehicles. We look forward to civil service-type standards for regulating employee recruitment, training, and retention.

In the meantime:    

• New York City students deserve a skilled workforce that is compensated with EPP, and is listened to about ways to improve the situation.
• We believe that unionized bus crews are the buffer against employer moves that harm young people, whose lives and education matter!   
• We want workers' and parents' grievances about long, overcrowded routes to be expedited. 
• We want a mass way to enforce and strengthen existing regulations on travel time limits, bus temperatures, and other conditions, rather than leaving it up to individual political appointees or company owners.

As always, we urge all NYC communities and labor to get involved in our campaign for a School Bus Bill of Rights.  For more information, please write to pistnyc@gmail.com

http://www.pistnyc.org/  https://www.facebook.com/PISTNYC/

For information in fluent Spanish, please contact https://www.facebook.com/groups/221709251868819/

--  Parents to Improve School Transportation

The real issues behind the looming bus strike by Sara Catalinotto of PIST

The Chancellor has warned of a possible school bus strike shortly after students return from the Xmas vacation.  The issues are not obvious to most parents; here is an explanation by Sara Catalinotto of Parents to ImproveSchool Transportation [PIST].  She adds:

1)  Next step in bidding on our kids' buses for next year is Thurs. Jan 3 at 1:00 p.m. at 30-30 Thomson Ave, LIC (next door to OPT). Of course this is a tricky time of day for parents who have to meet the bus.  Please let us know if you would consider going there to observe.  

credit: WCBS news

2)  Please stay tuned for a petition from parents to the Mayor based on the statement below, and other updates, in the next day or two. 

3)  Please tell us whether or not your child's school has held any bus evacuation drills this year.

4)  Here and attached is PIST Statement to parents at this critical moment for NYC school busing. 
Please feel free to comment, post, forward, print & share.

WHY IS THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN UP FOR BIDDING?

We are parents who organize other parents to demand better conditions for the education and transportation of students with and without disabilities.

           We do not accept “cost cutting” as a reason to force children onto long, twisted bus routes that stop at too many schools; routes that make many children miss school breakfast, classes, Related Services and/or Extended Day.  We are sick and tired of violations of legally mandated transportation accommodations—such as limited time travel and climate control—that cause kids with special needs to arrive physically and mentally drained to school and home.

           We are fearful of inadequate equipment on wheelchair buses.  We want more, not less training for bus crews.  We are angry at the lack of policies for separating teens from little kids on specialized transportation.   We think it’s hypocrisy for the DOE to suddenly start documenting bus evacuation drills that we have been demanding for two years but have yet to witness. 

            At this time the authorities, from Governor Cuomo to Mayor Bloomberg to Chancellor Walcott—who have never reached out to parents like us about the above concerns—are speaking and acting in favor of more “cost cutting” in the yellow bus system. 

They are attempting to establish contracts now for more than a thousand of the Fall 2013 routes, without the job protection and related benefits that all bus workers in K-12 have had for more than thirty years, known as Employee Protection Provisions or EPP.  This would set a precedent for other routes to eventually lose these protections also.

We disagree because the working conditions of bus drivers, escorts, and mechanics are the riding conditions of our children. 

EPP = SAFETY!  Having people with industry-wide seniority follow the work when different companies win bids means that the adults on the bus know what they are doing, are trained in emergency first aid, and are less afraid to point out potential safety hazards to their boss.  School bus drivers should be able to support themselves without a second job, and to retire before their reflexes slow down.

EPP = STABILITY because a decent wage and benefits package means lower turnover and less burnout.  Children who see familiar adults on the bus over the years feel safer and behave better. 

EPP = BEST PRACTICES.  School bus companies are in business to make money, so a contract without enough funding for training, dry runs, equipment, repairs and maintenance will pressure them to lower standards.  Don’t our children deserve safe, quality service? 

EPP is not only for the union.  IT IS OUR TAXES AND RESOURCES BEING PUT TOWARDS ALL CHILDREN’S EDUCATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS! 

When we read NYCDOE messages, we remember their record of downplaying the importance of school bus conditions to ensure these rights. 

In September, when autistic three-year-olds had three- and four-hour bus rides with inexperienced ‘competitive bid’ companies, Bloomberg said, “My understanding is they’re actually doing a pretty good job.”

            In October, when parents, Deaf students and educators, and school bus union leaders began to testify at Council Member Robert Jackson’s Oversight Hearing on School Busing, the DOE officials walked out.

            In November after Sandy, authorities rushed to reopen schools—even those without heat or with mental health shelters inside.  Following Cuomo’s executive order to drop regulations on vehicles and drivers, they placed students from the hard-hit areas on casino-style buses.             

With the NYSED regulations gone until further notice, EPP may be the only regulation on busing services that is in effect at this time!

In December, with families still reeling from Sandy and Sandy Hook about to begin winter break, the NYCDOE admitted in writing that they want to cut the cost of employing people who provide a vital service to 15% of schoolchildren: yellow school bus drivers, matrons/attendants, and mechanics.   The authorities appear willing to risk a legal strike at the cost of our children’s ability to get to school. UNACCEPTABLE!

The new bid proposal even recommends busing general and special education students together in 2015, despite the concerns of parent leaders.

            Of the two parties to the union contract, we have found that it is the union who agrees with parents on not wanting to throw away standards, while the authorities seek to sell our children’s safety to the lowest bidder.

            Please contact us for more on how and where to protest this type of bidding. Parents should not be the last to know what goes on in bid meetings that involve children’s lives.  You can also call 311 today and tell the mayor you support EPP.  [email: pistnyc@gmail.com , phone: 347-504-3310 (se habla español)]