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The issues surrounding privatized busing

By selliott | Sunday, July 6, 2008, 08:05 AM

There’s been a lot of conversation here at GOTB about this whole notion of privatized busing since a group of independent bus companies this week made their pitch that Dayton schools should outsource transportation.

The private bus companies made some bold claims, promising they could handle Dayton’s busing at a cost that is 40 percent below what the district is spending right now. For a district that is struggling with budget cuts, a potential multimillion dollar savings is quite enticing. And Lori Ward, the district’s business operations chief, responded by inviting the companies to make proposals to a group that is studying the district’s transportation operation in search of savings.

But a decision on this is not imminent. Dayton’s busing situation is very complex and unique. A ton of questions remain about what an outside company could and could not provide and at what cost. The district also is still smarting from its last outsourcing effort with ServiceMaster, a custodial contractor.

Dayton’s transportation cost are incredibly high. Of that there is no doubt. Certainly, some of those costs are due to wasteful practices. Some are also due to factors beyond the district’s control and other costs result from purposeful acts by the district that school leaders know will raise costs but do anyway.

Here are some points to consider:

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Special ed in a small town

By selliott | Saturday, July 5, 2008, 10:50 AM

I’m on vacation for a few days in northern Michigan (not the Upper Peninsula, which the locals call the UP). The Leelenau Peninsula, north of Traverse City, is a great lakefront getaway. But the local, year-round population is small and, as such, budgets for government services are modest.

In Northport, the small town where my brother and his wife have a cottage, they had a long-running debate about whether to install a sewer, which will cost each landowner in this tiny town of less than 700 full-time residents a pretty penny.

Recently, I stumbled across school-based example of the challenge of maintaining services in small jurisdictions like Northport.

Special education is a sticky issue for all school districts. Living up to the federal requirement that all student receive an appropriate education can cost a district significantly. In Dayton, for instance, there are a small number of profoundly handicapped students that cost the district more than $50,000 each for services each year.

And when disputes arise about what services are needed, the ensuing court cases can be very costly for everyone involved, including the school district.

Christine Samuels, who writes about special education at Education Week, recently highlighted Northport on her blog as an example of this.

It seems the district has had to set aside more than a quarter million dollars to fight a legal case over a special education student. That is a chunk of change when the total district budget is just $3.5 million. And get this — the suit was filed by a member of the school board, who is essentially suing himself!

I bet school board meetings in Northport are plenty lively these days.

(Image credit: Flickr.com)

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Meet Kurt Stanic, interim sueprintendent

By selliott | Friday, July 4, 2008, 12:12 PM

(Kurt Stanic is sworn in as interim superintendent Tuesday.)

On Tuesday, the Dayton school formally introduce and swore in Kurt Stanic as interim superintendent. And for the first time, I got to speak with him face-to-face.

It was an interesting conversation. Here some first impressions:

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Finn unloads on education in Ohio

By selliott | Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 09:57 PM

Checker Finn

Over at the opinion page’s blog, Editorial page editor Ellen Belcher noticed that Fordham Foundation President Checker Finn, a Dayton native, unloaded on his home state for its education policy under Gov. Ted Strickland in a column that was published in the Wall Street Journal.

Even for Finn, who often ruffles feathers with pointed commentaries, this column has raised eyebrows. There is no love lost between Strickland, who has professed high skepticism about school choice, and Finn, who is perhaps the nation’s most important school choice champion.

And to some extent the column is a pre-emptive strike against Strickland’s promised education overhaul, due next year. Many school choice fans fear Strickland’s main goals will be to dismantle as much of the 1990s Republican efforts at education reform as possible, which could threaten the future of school choice programs. Fears are especially high after Strickland successfully forced out state Superintendent Susan Zelman, who implemented much of the Republican agenda over the last decade.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

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Companies: City kids should ride private bus service

By selliott | Monday, June 30, 2008, 02:58 PM

A coalition of bus companies are making a pitch that the city school district could save 40 percent of its $12 million annual transportation costs by turning its bus service at all grades over to an outside company.

On Monday, the Greater Dayton RTA hosted a meeting with representatives from the National School Transportation Association, which argued the current high school bus service plan violates federal law by setting up direct routes to schools on city buses that run only when school is in service.

City and school officials said high school busing on RTA is not expected to return this fall because of tight budgets, leaving students to find their own way to school.

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Career mentorship done right

By selliott | Sunday, June 29, 2008, 10:29 PM

Here’s my problem with “job shadowing” and other career experience programs that place young students with professionals to learn about their jobs — too often the kids are just checking a box on a form.

In some cases, the kids are required to complete so many job shadows, sometimes up to three or four in their high school careers. And, too often, there is little effort to match the kids with the right mentors or even with the right careers they might actually want to pursue. Some kids are reaching for a second or third job to shadow, choosing something they are just vaguely interested in.

That’s not how they do it in Darke County.

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How important is high school busing?

By selliott | Thursday, June 26, 2008, 02:30 PM

On today’s opinion page, the DDN’s editorial board asks if the school board is doing enough to save high school busing.

The editorial notes that dropping the district’s RTA bus contract will have two big effects — it will almost certainly lower the district’s attendance and it will put thousands more kids downtown every day. A consequence of lower attendance could be a decline in academic achievement. Kids can’t learn if they aren’t in school.

The big question is whether the district can let that happen or if it can (or should) rework its budget to make high school busing a higher priority.

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