Aug. 23 – Student transportation is one of the priorities Bill Barnes laid out in his 90-day plan when he became permanent superintendent of the Howard County public school system on July 1.
“The goal is to make sure that this first day is much more normal than previous first days,” Barnes said.
Barnes has been acting superintendent since Jan. 10, after previous superintendent Michael Martirano announced his retirement on Nov. 17, despite having nearly three years left on a four-year contract.
The start of the 2023-2024 school year was plagued by transportation problems. On August 29, the second day of school, new bus contractor Zum Services canceled 20 of the 230 bus routes it had under contract, leaving more than 2,400 students at 34 elementary, middle and high schools without transportation for up to two weeks in some cases. Martirano indicated he expected all bus routes to be filled in a memo to school board members before the school year began, later calling the fiasco a “system failure.”
Barnes said this year will be different because all contractors will complete supervised trial runs of routes, and because school start times set to help with last year’s transportation issues will reliably meet the bus schedule. The first day of school is Aug. 26.
“The first thing I want families to know is that the buses are coming and the kids are going to get to school on time,” Barnes said. “The [school] The board has been very cooperative in terms of not moving school start times this year. We are in the process of creating a plan to see what that might look like next year, in addition to expanding walking zones as part of our new policy.”
Barnes meets weekly with the transportation office and addresses driver vacancies, staffing levels and fleet availability, he said.
“There’s more emphasis on planning, being strategic in our planning and putting down on paper what we plan to do,” Barnes said, “setting those goals and then monitoring progress toward those goals. … Our students deserve that we are very strategic in our actions.”
According to the document, the transportation plan is intended to test routes to ensure feasibility and accuracy, engage contractors to plan and test routes, and assess and evaluate driver availability to anticipate any potential shortages.
Barnes said an external investigation into student transportation in the Howard County Public School System has also been completed, including an analysis of what caused a system outage on the first day of last school year.
“We’re ahead of schedule compared to last year,” Barnes said, “so I’m optimistic. We’re still experiencing the post-traumatic stress from that failure last year, so until the buses are running, I’m confident we’re within a normal level of disruption — the first two weeks of school are always challenging with transportation.”
Barnes said he set expectations with Zum Services and that the transportation office team spent several days working with Zum leadership to establish communications, align systems and work out stress-testing details.
Zum Services is a California bus company that signed its first contract with schools in Howard last year and was awarded the contract to provide transportation on more of the region’s 503 routes than any other bus company.
“We expect every contractor to deliver on their promises,” Barnes said.
Other priorities in the superintendent’s 90-day plan include the budget, human resources, learning, strategic vision, implementation of the multibillion-dollar Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform legislation, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Barnes also laid out plans to reorganize the school system’s leadership ahead of the new school year, which he said is largely complete.
The first 90 days will rapidly accelerate efforts to improve in priority areas and will conclude with a comprehensive update that will be made public, the plan said. The 90-day plan is the first of many, Barnes said.
Originally published: August 22, 2024 at 3:02 pm
