Raytown (Mo.) School District closed its 18 schools Monday, Jan. 30 to prevent a flu-like illness from spreading. Cleaning crews went into overdrive in classrooms, school offices and, of course, school buses.

Transportation Director Dennis Robertson said his department met to discuss what measures to take after learning that dozens of teachers, students and district officials at the suburban Kansas City school district had called in sick Friday, Jan. 27. Reported symptoms included fever, vomiting, coughing and respiratory problems. School districts often opt for such closures to avoid losing state funding when attendance drops significantly.

Robertson said both bus drivers and technicians teamed up to scour the interiors of roughly 55 school buses before school resumed on Tuesday.

“We took disinfectant wipes and wiped down all areas that come into contact with students, such as seats and handrails. Then we took a spray disinfectant to all the buses,” he said. “They spent an extra three hours in the evening on Friday and then finished up on Monday.”

Robertson noted that his bus drivers are usually extra careful during flu season and frequently wipe down handrails and other germ-ridden areas.

“A lot of the drivers are religious about doing that on a daily basis,” he said. “Most of them have hand sanitizer and we keep it in the drivers’ common areas. It’s worth the extra effort to keep drivers healthy.”

When four confirmed cases of pertussis, or “whooping cough,” arose in two Milwaukee-area school districts in late November, Mequon-Thiensville (Wisc.) School District alerted parents via e-mail and assured them that all school buses would be sanitized.

The district has contracted with AllTran Services Corp. for 45 years and this was the first incidence of pertussis, according to Mike Gross, manager and co-owner of the school bus company. When Gross first heard about the whooping cough cases, he initially had difficulty finding information about the disease. After many phone calls and Google searches came up short, Gross decided to contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“I called the CDC in Atlanta to talk about how this disease spreads and how contagious it is,” he said. “We immediately brought in a crew of bus drivers and workers from the shop to sanitize all the buses. They used Lysol sprays and Clorox wipes and literally covered everything inside the buses for about four hours one night.”

Gross added that a specialist from the CDC provided “very good advice” and offered helpful tips that went beyond the standard recommendations, like keeping tissues and hand sanitizers on school buses.

Staying Healthy a Major Challenge for Bus Drivers

Still, school bus drivers remain vulnerable despite these precautions, emphasize two industry veterans. Peter Agostini, president and CEO of his family’s school bus operation, New Britain Transportation, said bus drivers are exposed to illness every time a child walks by them.

“School bus drivers might see 200 kids a day, so the exposure they have is really great. You would think they’d be out sick all the time,” said Agostini, who is also president of the Connecticut School Transportation Association.

Allan Jones, Washington state director of pupil transportation, started his 34-year career driving a school bus back in 1977 and said the job’s biggest downside was being exposed to so many germs.

“I spent 14 years being a school bus driver in Seattle, so I know drivers are around a whole bunch of little germ carriers. I have never been sick so many times, with both cold and flu, as I was during those years being a bus driver,” he recalled.

Driver absenteeism is a major stress for transportation directors, Jones continued, when they cannot cover their routes. He remembered a situation in Spokane about six years ago, when multiple drivers were absent due to illness one Monday in January.

“So many drivers were calling in sick that they couldn’t operate their routes. They had to figure what they were going to do,” Jones said. “With that many sick drivers, some of the buses don’t show up and then what? They couldn’t find enough subs.”

School bus drivers and other school personnel can find useful tips online from the CDC, National Education Association, American Red Cross or National Association of School Nurses, and many school districts offer resources on their own websites as well.

First off, Daniel Schatz, the son of Republican state House candidate Dave Schatz,  started the chain-reaction crash on Aug. 5, 2010 as he read five texts and sent another six in the 11 minutes prior to crashing his GMC pickup into the rear of a Volvo tractor trailer that had come to a stop in a construction zone on Interstate 44. Then, a school bus driver slammed into the rear of the Schatz's truck, forcing it on top of the tractor trailer, and seconds after the second school bus struck the first.

As a result, Schatz's truck was bent into a "U" shape and was killed instantly. A 16-year-old

The two buses were ferrying 54 members of the St. James High School band to the Six Flags St. Louis amusement park. Jessica Brinker, a 16-year-old band member was killed and 35 bus passengers and the two bus drivers were injured as was the driver of the tractor-trailer.

NTSB first announced preliminary results from the crash investigation in December, when it called on all states and D.C. to enact legislation that bans the use of all portable electronic devices by drivers, a recommendation it reiterated in its final report on Feb. 3. The agency urged NAPT, NASDPTS and NSTA to communicate details of the final report to all members.

NTSB said the first bus driver was watching a motorcoach that had pulled off to the right shoulder just after the first crash occurred and then was checking her mirrors and did not see the pile-up ahead until it was too late. The driver didn't even have enough time to brake. The second bus driver, according to NTSB, was following too closely behind the first and didn't have enough time or road space to completely veer onto the right shoulder without clipping the right-rear end of the first bus.

The second bus driver's following distance was 2.5 to 3.5 seconds, when the Missouri Commercial Driver License Manual dictates the following distance should by 4.5 seconds. NTSB said the required distance would have given the driver enough time to miss the first bus. That collision killed Brinker, who was seated next to the window in the last row of the first bus.

In its investigation, NTSB discovered that both school buses also had brake problems. The first bus had faulty brake lines; in fact one had ruptured. The other bus  had an out-of-place ABS wheel speed sensor in the other were also to blame. NTSB also said the school bus operator, Copeland Bus Company, was found to have deficient maintenance records, and the owner and mechanic had no formal training in servicing heavy-duty passenger vehicles.

NTSB also found fault with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (MDESE) oversight of school bus inspections, as both buses had recently passed their annual inspections with no cited problems. MDESE was urged by NTSB to improve its training school bus drivers on the risks of inattention, the need for proper road scanning and safe following distances.

NTSB called for revised Missouri state regulations for safety reviews of motor carriers involved in pupil transportation and an audit of the state vehicle inspection program. Missouri was also asked to revise its school bus evacuation regulations. NTSB also called for a modification to state school bus inspections procedures to identify all brake defects during biannual inspections.

Because on-site emergency personnel and school bus evacuees reported that clothing was snagged on emergency window exits, NTSB asked NHTSA to revise FMVSS 217 or corresponding lab test procedures to eliminate the potential of latch plates or other objects from protruding into window opening space, even when exit window meets the opening size requirements. Until then, NTSB recommended that NHTSA advise states on how to minimize potential school bus evacuation delays for windows with these protruding latches or windows that require additional manual assistance to remain open during an evacuation.

NTSB also renewed its request that NHTSA complete rulemaking on adaptive cruise control and collision warning systems for commercial vehicles. FMCSA was again urged to develop a comprehensive medical oversight programs for interstate commercial drivers.

FMCSA was asked once again to require all heavy commercial vehicles to be equipped with video event records to capture data on driver behavior and on the outside environment and roadway, in the event of a sudden deceleration crash.

Instead of eliminating school bus transportation funding for the remainder of the school year, SB 81 would implement an across-the-board reduction affecting all of the state's school districts. Gov. Jerry Brown is expected sign it, according to supporters.

When state revenue came up $2.2 billion short prior to Christmas, the governor enacted $1 billion in midyear “trigger” cuts that left school districts scrambling for funds to cover bus service the rest of this school year. Los Angeles Unified School District immediately filed a lawsuit after its transportation coffers were depleted by 50 percent. But state lawmakers were quick to respond. State Sen. Noreen Evans sponsored an amendment to SB 81 designed to spread out the budget cuts among all students in the California public school system.

“Districts all over California were up in arms, vociferously expressing their displeasure to their legislators,” said Rea. “By transforming this to an across-the-board trigger cut, every district gets an equivalent level of cuts, so it’s just more equitable. There is great support for that to happen."

If the bill passes, Rea explained, districts would get their transportation money back but would have a cut of $42 per average daily attendance (ADA) for the remainder of the current school year. He also noted that the state’s education coalition, which consists of teachers and classified employees unions, are “very supportive” of SB 81 because it levels the playing field for school districts using a greater amount of transportation services to serve the rural and the poor.

“The problem with the transportation trigger cut is that it’s very disproportionate,” Rea continued. “Why this bill make sense is because transportation is used by school districts at varying levels. In very rural and/or low-income areas, there are districts in this state where cuts equal from $30 to $2,000 per ADA…Some school districts have really high costs, and for those districts, their equivalent ADA cost is extremely high.”

Rea said that transportation’s current fiscal crisis has served as a “great education tool” for the legislature to learn about the importance of school bus transportation. He applauded a group of concerned citizens from southern Humboldt County that took a field trip to Sacramentoon Jan. 24 to meet with legislators and rally to shine a light on the important role of the yellow bus.

“It’s one of those moments when people are saying, ‘We’ve had enough, and we’re not going to take it anymore.’ A lot of these districts are on the brink. With extremely rural districts, if they don’t have transportation, the kids are not going to come to school. Then they lose money and children don’t get educated,” said Rea.

Dave Walrath, who represents the Small School Districts Association in Santa Rosa, said he would like to thank the Senate Budget Committee for amending the bill to address the “discriminatory” cut made to urban and rural school districts serving high numbers of children from low-income families and children needing special education transportation.

“Senate bill 81 treats all districts equitably as the state struggles — and school districts struggle — with lower-than-anticipated income,” said Walrath. “For most rural school districts, there is not subsidized public transportation…Consequently, the school bus, the parents or walking are the only means for these children to attend school. Many of these rural parents don’t have the income to afford transporting their students to school.”

For example, Walrath continued, in Imperial County, which is located by the Mexican border, the unemployment rate is currently 20 percent. He said there are many more school districts where 100 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced meals.

“Many of their roads don’t have sidewalks or bike lanes, so it is unsafe for students to try to walk or bike to school on those roads. There is a major student safety issue if transportation cannot be provided,” he said.

At the NAPT Summit in Cincinnati, Mark Aesch, former CEO of the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority in upstate New York and now an author and consultant, delivered a keynote presentation on metrics being the "next big thing" in pupil transportation. These quantitative and qualitative measurements, including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are necessary to help school administrators as well as taxpayers understand transportation service, and they are here to stay.

Mark Aesch

About 50 NAPT members volunteered on the spot last fall during the Summit to start conducting research, assess information technology, define metrics and develop the project outline and timeline. Michael Martin, NAPT's executive director, said this KPI project team is evaluating a variety of information technology options and will ultimately select a system that will enable participants to communicate online, quickly, communally, anytime, and without travel.

"The work groups are already making significant progress so much so that we may be able to begin collecting data this spring," he added Michael Martin.

The indication is what many have known to be true — namely, that state and local fiscal pressures continue to thwart the ability of customers to order new vehicles.

In fact, since the 2006-2007 production year, the end of which coincided with what is thought to be the formal beginning of the Great Recession, this sector has fallen off by 37 percent. This means nearly six fewer school buses are being manufactured today per every 10 that rolled off the production line just six years ago.

It’s important to note that School Transportation News’ annual survey of the seven school bus manufacturers only tracks the number of units that leave each manufacturing plant and not the actual number of buses sold. While the vast majority of the output goes toward filling orders placed by school bus operators, several of the OEMs also fulfill orders made via the General Services Administration, which supplies school bus vehicles to transport adults as well as children for the armed forces domestically and abroad or to service Department of Justice activities. School buses are also sold for export.

With Ford unable to report data at press time, STN calculated that about 30,304 total school bus units were produced during the 2010-2011 production year — the most dismal figures since the 1980s. As the Type C conventional segment goes, so does the rest of the market. Type C school buses represent the largest piece of the production pie, accounting for 60 percent of total production numbers on average. Only 18,713 conventional school buses were manufactured in 2010-2011 compared to 25,791 the prior year, a 27 percent decrease year over year.

Right there alongside Type Cs in recording a 16-percent decrease was the Type A small bus market, not coincidentally the second-largest segment of annual production. The past year saw 7,411 of these vehicles manufactured, the fewest since 6,313 came out during the 2006-2007 production year.

But the hardest hit segment was Type D transit-style school buses, which was down 30 percent to only 3,940 units. Only 2008-2009 has been worse the year over the past decade, when 4,689 of these buses rolled off the line.

Amid such numbers, school bus manufacturers have generally been pessimistic in their annual forecasts, and rightly so, predicting anywhere from 20- to 30-percent less output each of the past several years. That holds true for the current production year, which began on Nov. 1 and runs through the end of this coming October, as well as for the immediate future.

It will be interesting to see how output will be affected by new large bus manufacturer Lion Bus’ plans to expand throughout North America. And with Starcraft expected to roll out its own new Type C line sometime in the next year, will competition spur additional innovations designed to bring viability to customers?

It’s more than simply conjecture that a fix to education funding nationwide and certainly at the state level must occur to truly spur regrowth in this market. A true test could be if the housing market rebounds, a public policy matter that strangely has escaped the polarizing political discussions across the country. School budgets are, after all, intrinsically tied to property taxes. Once the housing bubble burst, it was no surprise that, as with the rest of the economy, school bus production went into the tank.

As North Americans once again turn back their clocks this coming fall, it remains to be seen if the industry can achieve some momentum as it also attempts to turn back its own clock with respect to pre-recession numbers that were in the high forty-thousands as little as five years ago. But, as we all know, a lot has changed since then. Perhaps, as more than one manufacturer told us, the school bus market might never again fully return to its former self.

In addition to this survey, STN approached each school bus manufacturer in the third and fourth quarters of 2011 and invited them to submit outlooks for the new year with the hope of shedding light on what opportunities exist in the market despite the burdensome economy. This is a focus of both our editorial this year and the theme of the 19th Annual STN EXPO this summer in Reno, Nev. Those open letters to the industry begin on page 20.

Certainly, offering innovative solutions to student transporters that are viable and affordable to their operations is paramount.

A breakdown by school bus type of units produced during the 2010-2011 production year, as reported by all manufacturers.

Projected school bus orders for the 2012-2013 school year, as reported by manufacturers.

Reprinted from the 2012 School Transportation News Buyer's Guide. All rights reserved.