HoCo School Bus Clusterf*ck

[RFBfromDE]

"I wouldn't condemn the entire program on account of a single slip up...."

 

[KJackson]

My sister's county in SC had this problem some 25 years ago when switching bus company's. The company said they under bid the contract and needed more money. They got laughed out of court and operated the busses without earning a profit for three years.

Here is something that will scare a lot of parents out there. When I lived in South Carolina in the early to mid 80s, the county that I was in owned its own school busses and they hired high school students to drive them. They were speed limited to 40 mph or something, but think about the high school seniors and sometimes juniors that you know. Would you trust them to drive your children to and from school?

 

[Stoveman]

Actually , my first thoughts were that usta be students within 1 mile of nearest Elem and JHS , and 1.5 Mile of HS , walked to school .

I couldn't imagine my 5 or 6 year old walking a mile to school, especially in inclement weather.

I don't have a dog in this fight anymore, just find the whole thing hilarious in a sad, pathetic way.

 

[rbird7282]

Multi part problem that, IMO, starts and ends with that douchebag Martirano.

The decision to keep HoCo schools closed during the Coof meant that a lot of the bus drivers took other jobs so when they finally re-opened schools there was a bus driver shortage.

And Martirano pushed a massive re-districting effort, in the name of equity, so now a lot of kids are going to different schools that are much farther away, some riding right past their old school.

And the new contract, which I would bet some of the money finds it's way back to Martirano, with a fledgling California bus company.

The redistricting thing has been going on for 20 years although it does seem to be even worse now. My daughter went to Oakland Mills HS. Thankfully shes in college now and I don’t have to deal with this crap. Howard County sucks but it still sucks way less than Moco.
Can’t wait to leave this f’ing state though.


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[MaxVO2]

****I grew up in PGCo, in a not great part of town (since PG is so full of great parts... and is noted for high earners, educated populace, and super low crime.... ) - and I can maybe count on one hand how many times my school bus was late throughout my time there through some of my high school before we moved to MoCo.

The bus *always* showed up, and was rarely late. This is not rocket science, and it's a pretty basic task.

 

[pbharvey]

Nobody is asking the really important questions here... does this effect the trans agenda and DEI initiatives within the schools? I'm worried that with some of these kids being late to school they are missing out on some of these key skill sets...

In all honesty, this disproportionately impacts the poor and by extension, people of color (not yellow). People are losing work hours dealing with this nonsense.

 

[RFBfromDE]

Historically, people have put up with tyrants so long as the trains ran on time.

This gives me hope!

 

[FrankOceanXray]

The bus *always* showed up, and was rarely late. This is not rocket science, and it's a pretty basic task.

You had one job.

This AM, driver showed up approximately 15 minutes early.

 

[Stoveman]

The redistricting thing has been going on for 20 years although it does seem to be even worse now. My daughter went to Oakland Mills HS. Thankfully shes in college now and I don’t have to deal with this crap. Howard County sucks but it still sucks way less than Moco.
Can’t wait to leave this f’ing state though.


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Longer than that, before we had our crotch fruit in our first house the kids were re-districted three times but the different schools were all about equi-distance away and was done due to housing growth. This time it was for EQUITY, can't have the schools out west where the kids of affluent parents attend having better test scores than Wilde Lake or Oakland Mills.

 

[Biggfoot44]

****I grew up in PGCo, in a not great part of town (since PG is so full of great parts... and is noted for high earners, educated populace, and super low crime.... ) - and I can maybe count on one hand how many times my school bus was late throughout my time there through some of my high school before we moved to MoCo.

The bus *always* showed up, and was rarely late. This is not rocket science, and it's a pretty basic task.

I don't know if you meant to do it , but you just made a key contrast .

In PG Co , school bus drivers ( and mechanics , supervisors , dispatchers , etc ) are PGPS Employees .

 

[LCPIWB]

View attachment 428828

I couldn't imagine my 5 or 6 year old walking a mile to school, especially in inclement weather.

I don't have a dog in this fight anymore, just find the whole thing hilarious in a sad, pathetic way.

Wow. I just calculated I used to walk 1.1 miles to/from school, and that is a 21min walk according to Google.
2miles would be a 40min walk. It is good excerize, but would not be fun in the driving rain or foot deep snow without shoveled sidewalks.

 

[whistlersmother]

My youngest graduated before the great DEI redistricting. Ironically, she would have been attending River Hill had she been younger.

So I have no more dogs in this fight other than property values.

Wonder if Maple Lawn South will get redistricted away from Fulton/Lime Kiln/Reservoir? That would be a super-major irony...

 

[TheBert]

Here is something that will scare a lot of parents out there. When I lived in South Carolina in the early to mid 80s, the county that I was in owned its own school busses and they hired high school students to drive them. They were speed limited to 40 mph or something, but think about the high school seniors and sometimes juniors that you know. Would you trust them to drive your children to and from school?

A girl in my class in high school got a DUI while driving herself and her friends to school one morning, this was about 6:30 AM.

 

[RFBfromDE]

A girl in my class in high school got a DUI while driving herself and her friends to school one morning, this was about 6:30 AM.

She could have just been hung over.

 

[pleasant1911]

My brother’s youngest like many others were first day kindergarten bus riders. Terrible first day. Both my brothers kids got home couple minutes before 5pm.

Got an email today a bus at my kid’s middle school will not be running.

 

[pleasant1911]

My youngest graduated before the great DEI redistricting. Ironically, she would have been attending River Hill had she been younger.

So I have no more dogs in this fight other than property values.

Wonder if Maple Lawn South will get redistricted away from Fulton/Lime Kiln/Reservoir? That would be a super-major irony...

for maple lawn south, i don’t think the worry is about those kids getting redistricted, but kids from else where getting redistricted to tyere.

We were going to buy into maple lawn south years ago, when interest rates were good, but Reservoir HS, was the reason why we didn’t move there.

 

[Phoenix_1295]

It is amazing how fast hoco has fallen in just a few short years.

The residents only have themselves to blame for not voting for Kittleman.

 

[mpollan1]

****I grew up in PGCo, in a not great part of town (since PG is so full of great parts... and is noted for high earners, educated populace, and super low crime.... ) - and I can maybe count on one hand how many times my school bus was late throughout my time there through some of my high school before we moved to MoCo.

The bus *always* showed up, and was rarely late. This is not rocket science, and it's a pretty basic task.

Same here growing up. Bus was never late. That said, I'm 60 years on this rock and according to the census figures the US population increased from 203M (1970) to 330M (2020). My mom still lives in the same house I grew up in and there have been exactly zero new main arteries constructed. Lots and lots and lots of new developments but alas all those capillaries flow to the same arteries. Not excusing the clusterfvck created in the school system (among other things) by liberals, but traffic cannot be discounted as a contributor to the variability in "scheduled" times.

Note: I think the 330M for the 2020 census is waaaaaaaay light.

 

[Melnic]

HoCo school administration is a clusterFk of incompetence right now.
They bunched several things all in one year. Thinking that intentions = logistics. and "saying something will work", makes it work. Well, does not work for the president and won't work for you all.
1) They suck
2) They are incompetent
3) They were in denial of #1 and #2
4) They shifted the school start times later (for the children)
5) Busses
6) Arrogant that #4 was actually going to change behavior.

So, they changed bus companies at the same time as shifting schedules around while cramming schedules to make bussing harder.
Last year, and I"m sure this year is worse, parents are dropping off / picking them up so that traffic is getting worse around the school too.

My daughter is child #4 and luckily she is driving. She goes to HCC in the mornings, then HS after that.

Shifting start times plays havoc on parents that want to drop kids off and then go to work, now they have to go to work later. Plus parents that wait at the bus stop have to go to work later.
Kids that want to work after school will have reduced hours or well, stay up later (which defeats the purpose of shifting start times).

I voted for Kittleman, not enough of us out here. Inner Columbia residents who want the hand outs from the dems voted for him.

EDIT:
Also, Yesterday they cancelled shuttle busses from HCC to schools, at least my daughter's school. She drives so no big deal, but any parents who dropped kids off at HCC had no way to get back to school to continue the day.

 

[Melnic]

My youngest graduated before the great DEI redistricting. Ironically, she would have been attending River Hill had she been younger.

So I have no more dogs in this fight other than property values.

Wonder if Maple Lawn South will get redistricted away from Fulton/Lime Kiln/Reservoir? That would be a super-major irony...

I predict River Hill will absorb more of Reservoir and possibly other areas, it is not near capacity I'm told, but all of ML will stay Reservoir, just too close.