Published: October 15, 2008 12:38 pm            

Late start at Greater Clark Schools igniting safety concerns

Greater Clark County Schools initiated the one-hour Wednesday late-start schedule as a way for teachers to receive more professional development hours and elementary students — who go to school as scheduled — more instruction time.

However, bus drivers say the schedule is causing too much confusion and safety issues, such as delayed maintenance and students loading busses when other busses are backing into the same parking lot.

Melissa Russell, a parent and bus driver of eight years, expressed her concerns to the school board Tuesday night.

“Busses are lacking maintenance ... because mechanics aren’t allowed to do their job properly due to being out on busses [driving] every day. If you need to speak to someone in our office, that’s impossible now days because everyone in our office is now driving a bus every day or riding one as a monitor,” Russell told the board. “I hope that there aren’t any emergencies where you have to get a hold of somebody, because you can’t get a hold of a supervisor, a mechanic or office personnel.”

Betty Roby, president of the bus drivers association, said after the meeting that the new late start is causing a multitude of issues.

“Since the ’80s, we’ve never had the problems with the routes that we have [now],” she said.

She said routes are designed to end when the next one begins, such as drivers going from high school, to elementary to middle school routes. That is the schedule four days out of the week. On Wednesdays, elementary students go first. That’s causing some drivers to go across town, wasting time in an already tight schedule.

While routes are changed to help alleviate that situation, students are left confused, not knowing which bus to ride on, Russell said.

She said as a parent, she’s constantly confused whether this Wednesday will be a late start or not.

“You never know week to week what’s going on,” she said. “Our phones ring off the hook at transportation. Nobody knows what time the busses are coming.”

She said this all started with the change in schedule.

“There were no problems until they did that this year,” Russell said. “This year is just total chaos.”

She and Roby are recommending that the corporation delay elementary students too, allowing bus routes to remain the same, just on a delayed schedule.

Superintendent Tony Bennett said after the meeting that the Wednesday delayed schedule is still a work in progress.

“This is a large-scale change,” he said. “We’re still working very hard to work out the logistics.”



CONSTRUCTION SAFETY

A security sweep of construction workers at Jeffersonville High School last week ended with three being sent home for failing to submit proof of passing a criminal history check, according to board member Christina Gilkey.

Gilkey said Thursday she visited the school and saw several workers without security badges, which are required. She said she called the president of Verkler Inc. — which is in charge of the project — and informed him of the situation. He then called the site supervisor who performed the security sweep.

“Safety has to be No. 1,” Gilkey told the board and audience Tuesday night. “We just need to make sure our contractors are abiding by our policies.”

John Cochran, with Verkler, told the board he understood their concerns and said Verkler is hiring an additional person to focus on the safety of students.

He also said all I-9 forms — which prove the construction workers are legal to work in the United States — will be turned in by Friday. That’s following a request from the board and its attorney, Larry Wilder.

“I appreciate the fact that Verkler has stepped up and hired someone to focus on student safety,” Bennett said after the meeting. “We just have to make sure we take every precaution.”

Construction at JHS is 44 percent complete, Cochran said.

At Charlestown High School, construction is still in the early stages. Work is being done outside the school building. However, once the project progresses, there will be more intermingling of students and workers.

The board asked those representing Whittenberg Construction, which is in charge of the project, if the same issues at JHS — such as people not wearing security badges or not filling out required documents — will happen again.

“People are going to follow the rules at Charlestown,” one of the representatives said.

Also at the meeting

• Those overseeing the construction project at New Washington Middle/High School said the project is ahead of schedule and slated to be done sometime in April.

• The enrollment report for this year showed 11 more students compared to last year. This year’s enrollment is 10,820.

• New Washington Elementary, Jonathan Jennings Elementary and Northaven Elementary schools will start a partnership with the Clark County Health Department and the Clark County Childhood Obesity Task Force. Third-grade students will learn through the program how to be more active and eat healthy.

        

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