Minnesota Association For Pupil Transportation

Transportation Issues Study Committee

The 183rd Meeting

November 23, 2011

Present:                                             

Lieutenant Ed Carroll, Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), Minnesota State Patrol (MSP)

Keith Paulson, Anoka-Hennepin School District

David Peterson, St. Paul Schools

Kelly Wosika, MDE Program Finance/Transportation

John Thomas, Eastern Carver County Schools

Fran Wilke, Minnetonka Schoolstrying this out.pdf

B.J. Ison, St. Paul Schools

Denny Coughlin, School Bus Training Company

Derrick Agate Sr., Hopkins Schools

Rich Enga, Wayzata Schools

Summary:  The summary of the September Transportation Issues meeting was approved.

Special Education Transportation and School Bus Safety Committee: The committee met last week at South Washington Schools. They discussed transportation issues when a student attends a care and treatment program. The next meeting is December 21, 2011, at Minneapolis Schools.

A document on Student Placed for Care and Treatment: Legal Requirements and Practical Considerations for Resident Districts and Providing District’s by Ratwik, Roszak & Maloney, P.A. was provided as a reference guide at the issues meeting.

David Peterson explained that St. Paul Schools were going through a special education review process with MDE. One of the requirements of the review process was for the district to present their policy on special education transportation notification policy. David Peterson was asked to share the district’s policy with others. John Thomas raised the question on where is it mandated that a district have a notification policy. Kelly Wosika mentioned that questions on special education reviews should be directed to the Monitoring and Compliance Division at MDE.

Office of Student Transportation Safety: The next Office of Student Transportation Safety Stakeholders (OOPTS) meeting is scheduled for December 12, 2011, at DPS, Mendota Heights Office.

Lt. Ed Carroll will be presenting at the joint Minnesota Association of Pupil Transportation (MAPT) and Minnesota School Bus Operator’s Association (MSBOA) in January. Also he is working with MSBOA on having regional meetings on driver training around the state.

Minnesota Department of Education: The Data Verification Report (DVR) has been posted to the MDE website to facilitate districts on the year-end reporting process. Districts should be reviewing the data on the report so that state aid in various transportation categories is calculated correctly.

Kelly Wosika asked the group if they would be in favor of extending the expenditures data found in Part V of the DVR. The majority of the group felt that the report should focus on basic student transportation and not get weighted down with transportation costs to certain programs.

MDE will be launching a new website in early December. The website was designed to be more customer orientated. In the meantime, Kelly will send the bus purchase information to Rich so that he can post it to the MAPT website. In the future B.J. Ison will be coordinating the state contract on school bus purchases.  

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDot) will have a forum on the 50-Year Statewide Vision for Transportation in Minnesota. The forum will focus on the new vision and guiding principles that affect transportation priories and investment decisions. There are two opportunities to attend the forum, Thursday, December 1, 2011, 1:00 – 3:00p.m. at the Minneapolis Central Library or Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 9:30a.m. – 12:00p.m. at the St. Cloud MnDot District Office.

The commissioner has given approval for MDE to coordinate the nominations for the U.S. Department of Education’s new Green Ribbon Schools recognition program. In order for a school to be recognized for this national award they must be nominated by their state department of education. An application for the award will be forthcoming. More information on the award can be viewed on the U.S. Department of Education website at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools/index.html

There was a discussion on what laws require a parent’s auto insurance to pay first when a student is injured on a bus. Also there was a discussion on what laws provide the limitations on liability of a school district. More information on these issues will be forthcoming.

The Transportation Security Administration has send out a DVD on security awareness training for bus drivers and transportation service supervisors. If you have not received a copy, Kelly Wosika has one to lend out. It was mentioned that MAPT should upload the DVR to their website.

Legislation: Brad Lundell, MAPT Legislative Liaison, was not able to attend the meeting but had sent a report on what may be happening during the 2012 legislative session. First of all, the boundaries of all legislative districts are in the process of being redrawn. Second, the state budget is expected to have a significant revenue shortfall. The session is scheduled to begin January 24, 2012.

Dave Peterson presented MAPT legislative statement as of October 11, 2011. Some of the topics on the list include funding issues, seatbelts on school buses, shared cooperative services, school bus construction standards and support of select DPS school bus program initiatives.

Lt. Ed Carroll mentioned that DPS is working on some clean-up language and technical issues for next legislative session. He would like to see the amendments be put in one bill so that it moves forward in legislation. Last session the same amendments were presented and were included in a transportation omnibus bill. The transportation bill did not pass, therefore the DPS amendments did not either.

MSBOA is moving forward with mandating crossing gates on school buses.

There was a discussion on a possible change in requiring triangles in Type III vehicles.

Miscellaneous: There was a discussion on the laws regarding restrict procedures and how they apply to students on the bus. There is an understanding that staff needs to be specifically trained in this area. It was mentioned that it would be cost prohibited to have every bus driver trained in the procedures. The procedures apply to all students; general ed and special ed. This topic is on the agenda of the February special education committee meeting.

MNDot has created a steering committee meeting on Safe Routes to Schools. The first meeting will be on November 30, 2011. Keith Paulson and Kelly Wosika are on the committee.

Denny Coughlin said that the Minnesota Symposium on Terrorism and Emergency Preparedness (M-STEP) provided by Hennepin Technical College in November was very good. There was a session on 7 Steps to Hate that was excellent. He encouraged people that work in student transportation to attend these sessions in the future.

John Thomas provided information on the MAPT MSBOA Joint Winter Conference that will be held January 20-21, 2011, at the Crowne Plaza River Center, St. Paul, MN. Peggy Burns, a nationally recognized speaker on special education transportation issues will be presenting. Student Transportation of America underwrote her appearance at $3000.00 for the conference. John Thomas expects this conference to be the best ever. He plans on inviting special education directors, school board association members and superintendents. Kelly Wosika offered to help spread the word through MDE’s list serves and mailings.

It was mentioned that the parking facilities for the conference should be mentioned in the invitation.

It was suggested that there be a discussion on transportation cost allocation at the next meeting.

Future Meetings:  Wednesday, January 25, 2011, 9:30 a.m. -11:30 a.m.

Adjourn:  11:10 a.m.