One candidate's budget solution: No a/c on morning school bus routes

Scores of residents and school district staffers have offered budget cutting ideas to the Pinellas school district in recent weeks. Why not one of the candidates for School Board? Steven Isbitts, who is running for the District 4 seat, today announced a proposal to save $400,000 a year by not running the air conditioning on school buses in the mornings. The only caveats: air conditioners would be on when morning temperatures topped 80 degrees, and buses carrying special needs students would be exempted.

Isbitts, a former journalist, bases his math on an interview with Len Krysko, an official in the district’s transportation department. His news release contains several calculations. He estimates district buses could reduce the number of air conditioned miles by 5-million a year and that non-air conditioned miles would be 15 percent more fuel efficient. He bases the calculation on the district’s last fuel purchase, which came to about $4.17 a gallon.

He also suggests an incentive plan to get more bus drivers thinking about fuel efficiency. The other District 4 candidates are Chris Hardman, Ken Peluso and Robin Wikle.

Comments

[Frustrated]

Passionate whiner:
Your points are well-taken. I am not saying that I agree with the practice or that implementation is being done so as not to waste money. Bear in mind the money for this is paid by the POTENTIAL EMPLOYEE or VENDOR, NOT the district. So, changing this practice would have no bearing savings for the budget shortfall. The current system may not be the most efficient way to implement the legislative requirements. However, it must be noted that this isn't a district-level decision. Again, this goes back to Tallahassee and state legislative practices and mandates. In fact, here is a link to an article, written by Jeff Solochek himself, that explains that the state only stores the records for five years. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/10/16/Hillsborough/School_security_plan_.shtml
From that srticle:
"Because the state will store prints for only five years, she added, employees should have to pay a reprinting fee every fifth year, too."

"The law clearly states what the parameters are, and all school districts will need to comply," Kipley said. "We have looked at many ways to have as little impact on our employees as possible."

My question would be why has the state not created a way to 1) maintain the fingerprints longer than five years, and 2) create a Universal fingerprint database for all districts to access. This way, people moving between districts would not have to pay for reprinting every time he/she changed districts.
Once again, we are looking at issues created by the state legislators, not districts, who are concerned with compliance in order to be able to access their federal and state funds.
So, yes, I am willing and I do agree that it is a completely unnecessary collection of money from employees. But I disagree that this is driven by districts-- it is created by our *cough* wonderful *cough* *ahem* state legislators.

[whining is my passion]

Frustrated,
How might a new set of the same fingerprints allow someone to more easily gain access to any information on changes in my behavior? I'm just not sure how this works. My fingerprints are the same, you still have them on file, so if you want to know if I've committed a crime, run my same fingerprints through. Am I missing something or is this a no-brainer? Are you not willing to admit this is a completely unnecessary collection of money from employees?

[Frustrated]

Re: fingerprinting:
1) Employees, contractors, vendors, etc have to PAY for their OWN fingerprinting. So, teachers absorb the cost of yet one more thing in order to be able to work. This would not provide a savings for any district!
2) To anonymous @ 10:11 PM: It isn't that your fingerprints might have changed in the last five years, but your behavior may have changed. The purpose is to continue to monitor if anyone who is already employed has had an arrest in the past five years that was not reported to their employer. Of course, no matter how or why any policies related to schools are implemented, there will be those who will complain and claim to have the miracle answers.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people on this forum are to shoot off their mouths without having ANY knowledge of that which they speak.
It is my wish that each and every person who writes negative, complaining posts about education would get involved in their local school's SAC or PTA/PTO. Problem-solve and be an effective change-maker rather than a whiner and complainer.

Refingerprinted, are you kidding me? Do they think my fingerprints have changed in the last five years???????

[tampa]

Isbitts rocks!

Nobody suggested we board 100 kids on a bus, roll up all the windows and let them bake in the sun in the parking lot while the bus driver goes grocery shopping.

The suggestion was: pick a reasonable morning temperature where everyone can be comfortable and choose not to run the AC in order to save gas.

While we're at it, may I suggest (like my husband tells me all the time) no speeding? Not only do you get speeding tickets, your gas consumption goes down! Gee whiz. Drive the speed limit, open a window and whoa la! Save gas.

Very reasonable suggestions.

[Props]

Isbitts is aware that some students spend an hour or more on the bus. Isbitts also is aware that these are high school students who board buses before 6 a.m. to arrive at school by 7 a.m., when air conditioning just isn't necessary. We all agree that the state has forced districts to consider cutting all optional spending. Blowing air conditioning in the a.m. falls in that category. www.ImprovePinellas.com

What if the Governor vetoed the education budget and required the Legislature to property fund the public schools? Does the "people's governor" care about school children or not?

When "old school" went to school, they didn't have them new fangled computers either. So, do away with those wasteful things and buy an abacus for each student. We could save tens of millions on computers and millions on electricity. When "old school" went to school, they didn't make school employees get fingerprinted. That costs $65 per employee applicant and every employee has to get refingerprinted every five years. There are hundreds of thousands of savings in eliminating this waste. When "old school" went to school, the football team didn't wear helmets or pads; the list just goes on.

We can't take the public schools into the 21st Century by moving back to the beginning of the 20th.

Someone out there, please show some leadership.

[Old School]

Get rid of the buses altogether. Have the students walk to school. My father showed me once how to get to school before starting first grade. It was about a five mile walk and after some strategic planning, it was cut down to about four miles by cutting through the woods and on a Saturday morning, placing rocks across the creek to form a bridge for future crossings to and from school.

[minnie]

I guess Isbitts isn't aware that many students are on school buses for over an hour.When was the last time he rode in his car without any air conditioning- in Florida? Children should not have to suffer because decisions are made prior to researching the cost.Many of the windows do not open or go down on a school bus.Is PCS ready and able to pay the medical bills.We have yet to pay for the damages that the poor air conditioning has caused in school buildings, not to mention the health related illnesses that students and staff incur while there.We can get rid of the central office staff and give the money to the schools.Stop paying for $100,000 pencil pushers.Many school administrators are paid over $60,000/year to be 'yes men'.This type of activity has to stop.Salary eats up to 85% of the operating budget.They should be highly qualified persons that are able to do the job effectively.www.minnieforschoolboard.com

[what a joke]

That's okay. My entire school doesn't have air on most days. So, this isn't a new idea.

Is this micro managing? Should school board members worry their pretty heads about gas mileage? Next thing you know, this guy will be suggesting how school bus seats get covered to save money!

GO GREEN! Definitely worth considering ...

[Bill]

4:09 -

Last time I checked school bus air conditioning prices were dictated by a "utility company".

That sentence about "special needs" students must really hit close to home.

Makes sense to me. My daughter wears a sweater on the school bus in the morning because it's so cold. If it saves money, what's the big deal.

Seems like the 70s dished out a darn good education, even without the AC.

If the Legislature thinks its a good idea to move the schools back to the 1970's, this idea to cut air conditioning would fit in perfectly. More money for the "classroom" and less for utility companies. Perfect.

I've got one. They could put stationary bikes in all of the classrooms and hook them up to power generators. The kids could get their excersize while generating enough energy to run the school for the entire day. In addition, the districts could eliminate all of the PE positions and move those "teachers" into core subject classes to reduce class sizes. Problem solved.

The other option is to elect Legislators who actually plan on moving the schools into the 21st Century. I hope that this happens sooner rather than later.