South Shore board progressing on recommendations

Officials from the board recently appeared before the provincial legislature’s public accounts committee in Halifax to discuss their progress.

“We got some good feedback from the MLAs about our report. We made a huge amount of progress in some areas. In some other areas, we’re just getting started.”

The number one issue concerned bussing. The report stated 87 per cent of 174 inspections found safety problems. The report also stated the number of emergency evacuation drills during the 2006-07 school year and preventative maintenance schedule were inadequate, and that the board allows more than three bus stops per 1.6 kilometres without a formal procedure to ensure these variances are approved by board members.

Pynch-Worthylake said the latest inspection found only three bus deficiencies. “That’s an enormous shift.”

She reiterated no one has ever been in danger because a bus will not pass a safety inspection for non-dangerous reasons. “The example I like to give is a hole in the exhaust wouldn’t pass a safety inspection but if it was your car you wouldn’t hesitate to drive your child to class.”

However, she added, “It was a significant issue and we already knew it. We have never disagreed we needed improvement.”

An external consultant was contracted to develop and implement changes and a Fleet Coordinator position was added to also give the Manager of Transportation more time to focus on such aspects of board operations as routes, bus stops, driver training and driver evaluation. The bus garage in Bridgewater was also renovated.

Pynch-Worthylake added the board purchased a new time tracking system called Easy Bus. She said many required activities were often done but not documented, and with an auditor, that’s the “same as not doing it.”

Staff is in the process of finishing a review of bus routes and stops, the bus maintenance budget has been increased, resulting in more preventative maintenance, training and verification of training has been improved, and evacuation drills scheduled.

Another issue is deferred maintenance, which, as one example, means work that should be done on a building. The board has yet to develop a tracking system. Pynch-Worthylake added funding for such capital and maintenance projects, estimated at $5-million, is inadequate. She said anything posing a danger to students and staff would, of course, be immediately dealt with.

The board also states it needs money to meet recommendations to complete yearly police checks on employees.

Other issues dealt with include improvements to playground equipment and documenting fire safety inspections. In fact, Pynch-Worthylake said documentation is helping meet many of the recommendations, although it is time consuming.

“In terms of student records, we need an integrated student information system. We’ve been pushing for it for eight years and really need it.”

Pynch-Worthylake has one major concern that is indirectly arising from the report.

The changes were primarily funded with a $1.1-million surplus and fuel oil relief provided by the province, she said.

“We’re okay for this year because we used the surplus but I’m very concerned for 2009-2010.”