Public School Policies

The big yellow school bus that lumbers through residential streets throughout the school year is a sight often taken for granted by parents and students alike. However, those buses may become scarce in the state of New York, if dire predictions about a transportation strike in New York City ring true. A union that represents city school bus drivers has warned of an impending strike if their labor demands are not met in the very near future.

The Dispute Leading Up to Strike Talk

Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union is the group threatening the strike, according to a report at the New York Daily News. The primary point of contention is a demand by the union that pre-kindergarten bus drivers receive seniority-based job protection like other school bus drivers in the city. The union wants these bus drivers to receive protection, even if the current company they work for does not win a new contract. The concern arose when city officials began to talk of collecting bids for a new transportation company when the current company’s contract expires in June of next year.

The president of the drivers’ union, Michael Cordiello, told the Wall Street Journal that if the city did away with senior protections for experienced drivers, the result could be many more unprepared bus drivers on the streets of New York City. He mentioned a charter bus accident in the Bronx that occurred in May, killing 15 people.

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With the expectation of a loss of accreditation coming in January, Kansas City Public Schools are dealing with plenty of turbulence both within and outside their ranks. The school district’s accreditation was revoked in September after a vote from Missouri education officials. The decision was based on the fact that for several years, the district has failed to meet academic performance standards established by the state. With many questions left unanswered as to what will happen next, many within the district are reacting to the coming changes with fear, concern and even panic.

The Decision is Made

According to a report in the Huffington Post, Missouri school officials made their decision to revoke the district’s accreditation less than a month after the current superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools, John Covington, left the district to take a job in Michigan helping poorly performing schools in that state. The interim superintendent, R. Stephen Green, told the Huffington Post that while the district was disappointed in the state’s decision, they would rely on community involvement to help bring schools back up to state standards.

This is not the first time Kansas City Public Schools have lost accreditation. The first vote to this effect took effect in 2000. After two years of work to get the schools in the district back up to par, Kansas City was granted provisional accreditation since 2002. However, after years of failing to make the grade, education officials decided it

The current academic year is now in full swing, but for some Detroit Public Schools, overcrowding issues are showing no signs of waning. Last week, an elementary school in the district was cited by the fire marshal for a jam-packed classroom. Parents and teachers, as well as the teachers’ union for the district, are complaining that district officials are simply not listening to their concerns, and classroom sizes are not changing fast enough to facilitate a safe, positive learning environment.

This report from WXYZ states that "parents are complaining about shocking overcrowding in Detroit schools that has kids sitting on milk crates."

Violations Found at Nolan Elementary

The Detroit News reported last week on a parent of a kindergarten student at Nolan Elementary, Kristol Philpot, who complained that her son was in a classroom with 55 other students. When her concerns went unheeded by the school’s principal, Philpot contacted fire officials about the problem.

“There are completely way too many children in there,” Philpot told the News. “It’s a completely unsafe environment there and they can’t learn. There are 56 children and it’s steadily growing.”

Philpot said she called the fire department because the principal wouldn’t answer her questions on when a new teacher would be brought in to divide the class.

“With the class that size, if there is a hazardous smoke or fire, it’s unsafe for the children. There

The school bus has been a popular mode of transportation for students of all ages for generations - so much so that a week every year has been set aside to focus on the safety of these big yellow vehicles. School Bus Safety Week kicked off this month across the country, and many school districts got into action with school assemblies, events, and reminders to students, drivers, and motorists to keep students safe while they are on the road. We’ll take a look at a few of the school bus events taking place nationwide and a few facts about school buses that you may not know.

The History of School Bus Safety Week

The first School Bus Safety Week was established in 1963 for the state of California, according to the West County Transportation Agency website. The creator of that event, Dick Fischer, took his cause national by 1970, distributing a flyer of information to state directors of transportation across the country. The movement slowly gained momentum until hundreds of school districts from coast to coast began celebrating this week by emphasizing school bus safety for drivers, students, parents, and other motorists sharing the road with these bright buses. Today, the movement is coordinated by the National Transportation Association and the National Association for Pupil Transportation, and it is held the third week in October each year.

A national poster contest is held each year to allow students nationwide to submit designs for the annual promotional poster

The ongoing Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal that has taken months to investigate is now in the punishment phase. Both teachers and administrators involved in the widespread cheating throughout the city are learning their fate, as the first batch of sanctions was handed out by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. Those first sanctions may set the pace for how the state deals with similar cases of cheating and unprofessional conduct in the future.

Teachers Suspended, Licenses Revoked

According to a report at WTVM , the first batch of 11 educators implicated in the cheating scandal received their punishment from a vote by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission last week. The vote resulted in a two-year suspension of the teaching certificates of the eight teachers included in the group. The three administrators had their certificates revoked.

The punishments are considered rather stiff, particularly in light of the fact that this first batch of educators cooperated fully with investigators, which led to information that will move cases forward against additional individuals within the school system. Gerald Griggs, an attorney representing two of the teachers from Parks Middle School, said his clients were hoping for lesser penalties as a result of their cooperation.

“They felt pressure from the top,” Griggs explained to WTVM. “It was a culture that was going on. They were implicated in making erasures and changing test scores. My two clients that were implicated had admitted it and were being cooperative with authorities.”

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