This page will be continually updated as we learn more about the proposed changes for next year.
Update 6.23.2023 – PM
From: HES PTA President <president@hespta.org>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2023 12:30 PM
To: Brian Nevin <Brian_Nevin@hcpss.org>
Subject: Re: [External] Bus Transportation Concerns: Invitation to PTA Meeting
Good afternoon, Brian. Thanks for your email yesterday. I understand from a couple of the BoE members that a decision was announced at last night’s meeting to not proceed with co-ridership on the buses. I’m very pleased to hear that. Unfortunately, I was not able to listen in on the BoE meeting myself as I was having my own PTA Executive Board meeting last night at the same time the BoE meeting was held. I just wanted to get clarification on that announcement. Is the co-ridership decision just for the 2023-24 school year, and to be revisited in planning for, say, the 2024-25 school year, or is it a policy change that the County does NOT plan to pursue again in the foreseeable future? Thanks.
Melissa
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———- Forwarded message ———
From: Brian Nevin <Brian_Nevin@hcpss.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 23, 2023 at 1:09 PM
Subject: RE: [External] Bus Transportation Concerns: Invitation to PTA Meeting
To: HES PTA President <president@hespta.org>
Good afternoon Melissa,
You did hear correctly that we will not be utilizing combination busing this school year. It is only a decision made for this year and may be reviewed in subsequent years as we go through our routing process. The statement was made in my opening remarks and then again during discussion. My opening remarks can be found on Board Docs.
Thank you again for allowing me the opportunity to hear the feedback from your community.
Hope this helps.
Brian
Update 6.22.2023 – PM
Ms. Watts: Thank you for your response. It is good to hear that the Board is aware of the concerns addressed in my letter from yesterday, and that the decision to bus elementary and middle school students together is not a foregone conclusion. It remains the position of the HES PTA that shared ridership is an unacceptably unsafe plan for transporting our children.
Thank you also for sharing that elementary students will not be held on the buses waiting for the middle school to dismiss and that any increase in the length of the elementary students’ day will be supervised by the teaching staff in the building. Are details on this arrangement available? For example, is this envisioned to run in a fashion similar to the double bus runs that took place this past year? It is my understanding that supervision in that instance was provided by paraeducators, not teachers, and that the ratio of students to staff was quite high (e.g., 2 adults supervising 50+ children). If the supervision duty will fall to paraeducators, is there adequate staff to provide that supervision safely for all elementary bus riders?
It is also my understanding that the time in the teachers’ duty day when students are not present is typically utilized for staff meetings, communications with parents, etc. If, in fact, teachers will be supervising the students, presumably it will cut into the time devoted to these activities. As such, has this plan been vetted with the teachers and administration and determined to be feasible?
We would appreciate any further information that you or Dr. Dennis may be able to share.
Finally, thank you for alerting me to the issue with the health impact document. I have attached a PDF of that file which hopefully opens correctly.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Melissa Zawadzki
HES PTA President
Update 6.22.2023 – AM
Dear Melissa Zawadzki,
Thank you for reaching out. The board was copied on most of this communication, so we are up to date on your concerns. I want to assuage your concerns about supervision needs.
“You did not address a plan for the management of 15 minutes of aftercare for elementary school bus riders. Who will supervise the ES children and how will these adults be paid? Will ES teachers be expected to extend their day by 15 minutes to provide this care? Where will the children be located during this time? What activities will be provided? The comment that some of this time will be used “utilized to load the bus and prepare for departure” does not actually address the 15 minute differential because if MS students are to ride the same buses, there will be additional time for those MS students’ loading and preparing for departure. There is no reason to believe it would take longer to load the ES students on the bus than the MS students, therefore the net difference is still 15 minutes. To set in motion a need for an additional 15 minutes of aftercare (by planning for combined ES and MS buses) without a detailed plan to staff, resource, and oversee that aftercare is reckless.”
I spoke with the Department of Student Management and Instructional Leadership (SMIL) about this concern. Because the 15 minutes is within the “duty day” (paid contract time) for teachers, the additional supervision, if necessary, would be covered by teachers in the building and not on the school bus. However, they are confident that they can manage the dismissal of the elementary school students so that there is no need pay for additional supervision beyond what is already contractually required of teachers. I have included Dr. Anissa Dennis (Chief of SMIL) on this email.
Please know that there has not been a final decision made for Hammond ES/MS as it relates to shared bussing. The Department of Transportation has additional work to complete before making the final determination as to whether shared ridership will proceed.
Finally, the file “combined bussing health impacts” opens into an gmail account. I believe the Board has previously received this document but I wanted to make sure that we had all of the information that you intended to include in this email.
Thank you for your advocacy,
Antonia
Antonia Watts (she/her), Chair
District 2
E: antonia_watts@hcpss.org
Updated: 6.21.2023