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Home My WebLink About2013-11-07-STAS-min Ad Hoc School Transportation and Safety Study Committee November 7, 2013 at 9am Conference Room, Central Administration Blg Meeting Minutes 1 Attending. Judy Crocker, Elaine Dratch (TAC), MaryEllen Dunn (Asst Superintendent), Sharon Kendall,Jessie Steigerwald (SC), Craig Weeks Guest. Bonnie Brown, Shannon Mahoney,Albert Montgomery 2 October meeting minutes were accepted as amended. 3 School Bus Registration Update Bus ridership is currently 2850 students 4 Proposed LPS School Traffic Safety and Mitigation Policy a) The process for finalizing the policy document continues with the following steps • Organize comments and feedback into a final summary report. • A parent survey needs to be drafted, distributed, and findings written. • Any budget requests need to be finalized. The School Committee has expressed questions over the need to include administrative procedures in the final document.Working with TSAC, Ms. Dunn will seek their input. She will also meet with the School Committee's policy sub- committee in order to discuss separating the policy from the procedure This sub- committee is comprised of Ms Coppe and Ms. Brodner and does not meet regularly IF not found in the policy,then the administrative procedures may work through LPS operations Ms. Dunn is then looking at the timeline for School Committee and scheduling DPF and DPW meetings. b) 2015-19 LPS Budget- The School Committee will be seeking monies for 3 student transportation-based initiatives • Facilities - school property maintenance of signage, pavement markings, and GIS inventory mapping. • LPS - elementary arrival/dismissal supervisory personnel. • LPS - 2014 design study for the 4 school properties based on 2013 WorldTech preliminary recommendations After some discussion, it was determined that due to procedure,the Committee would be unable to create a placeholder for the monies once the final report is in. The first step in working through the appropriation process will be to petition the Capital Expenditures Committee for the primary funding. The 2014 design study will be assigned to those 4 schools believed to be in the greatest need for infrastructure improvements. These include Bridge, Clarke, Diamond, and LHS Ms Dunn has had a conversation with Mr Goddard and Shawn Newell will be assigned to supervise the project.A five-year plan is expected to be needed to complete all ten school properties The LPS elementary personnel request is believed to be a better use of faculty resources in order to managing large numbers of bussed students.As the Superintendent's primary charge includes safety (along with mandated programming and enrollment as part of teaching and learning), the requests are being heard. 5 New Business a) New Community Center Design -With the present planning of the Town's new community center,the concern was raised on how best to transport middle school students to the facility after school. The elementary Ride After program cannot be applied to the middle school grades for the same buses which transport middle schoolers' must then complete elementary runs immediately thereafter There is no time to add extra middle school stops before beginning the elementary tier Another proposal includes having a single dedicated bus from each middle school. It may also be possible to make changes to the Lexpress schedule to collect the students on or near school property Other Town agencies considering such options include Recreation Dept, Council for Aging and Lexpress. C &W Transportation will look at proposed routes once the new programming has been established. b) Nov 13 Estabrook PTA Meeting- It was brought to the Committee's attention that the Estabrook PTA/Site Council was sponsoring a public meeting to discuss the new school, including transportation flow and procedures during the Feb- June 2014 interim period. The Committee expressed great concern that while DiNisco and DPF would be represented, no invitation has been extended to LPS Transportation, C&W Transportation, or Ms Dunn. Of grave concern is that school buses have not been included in the transportation planning process. Mr Goddard and Dr Ash have not responded to the Committee's invitation to attend either the November or December meeting. The Committee will resend the invitation for its early winter meetings in order to discuss the final Estabrook traffic plans before they are finalized. The invitation will also include school principals c) LHS Media Class -A discussion was held on the appropriate packaging of last semester's LHS Media Class projects.A preamble introduction will be created and the video shorts will need to be reviewed before they can be shown on local cable. d) LPS Violator Letter of Passing School Bus Displaying Flashing Lights -The Committee endorsed a motion for a proposed actionable item to the Superintendent and School Committee recommending that the School Committee create a procedure to send a form letter to vehicles witnessed by those other than the Police that pass a school bus displaying its flashing lights The current Committee draft would be included as an example of the form letter A citizen attending this meeting suggested that photos and videos by published of offenders similar to the Minuteman newspaper's pole vault series as well as publishing offender license plate numbers. e) Student Pedestrian Maps - The Safe Routes To School program is constructing maps of the most common student walking routes for each school. These will be used by DPW and Engineering to better coordinate sidewalk snow removal and repairs around our schools. In addition, MassDOT is about to release a software program that can be used to identify student walking routes. It is the hope that the Superintendent can utilize these two initiatives as a tool during any future school redistricting. Respectively submitted, Judy Crocker