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Their view: Companies are also flunking retirement planning

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The promise of 5G wireless - speed, hype, risk

<p>It almost seems like the educational equivalent of Al Capone finally getting convicted not for all crimes he oversaw as a ruthless Chicago underworld boss, but for failing to pay federal income taxes.</p><p>If you were going to pick something a school district superintendent could do to justify being ousted, you would probably think of something tied to the education of students, or maybe the treatment of teachers and staff. Bus business, by contrast, feels pretty ancillary to the job.</p><p>That&#8217;s true in part because the state does not require a district to provide transportation for students. Districts do it for obvious reasons, but it is not a mandate.</p><p>Yet here we are, with two of Luzerne County&#8217;s 11 school district superintendents off the job in a single month because of errors in the world of school bus contracts.</p><p>Crestwood&#8217;s Joseph Gorham stepped down in January after two days of school were canceled in October because required clearances for drivers were not on file at the district office. On Friday, the Hanover Area School Board named an acting superintendent to replace William Jones, who remains on paid leave, after an audit discovered overpayment to the parents of the board president for van services. Frank J. and Dorothy Ciavarella should have received about $136,000, yet got that and another $250,000.</p><p>It is worthwhile to consider what should have or shouldn&#8217;t have been done to prevent these troubling developments.</p><p>For starters, tight budgets have reduced central office staff at school districts, with the title of &#8220;transportation director&#8221; disappearing in some of them as the duties were assumed by someone already tasked with other jobs. No one wants to see tax dollars wasted, but this may be a case of penny wise but pound foolish. It behooves districts to carefully evaluate the manpower committed to student transportation.</p><p>When the Crestwood debacle was unfolding, the district&#8217;s teacher union president Bill Kane suggested via a media release that the penchant for contracting private companies rather than having an in-house bus system creates the risk of problems. &#8220;It&#8217;s obvious that outside companies often care more about the bottom line than the best interest of our kids,&#8221; he said, suggesting &#8212; not surprisingly &#8212; that hiring union people as bus drivers would assure better control and oversight.</p><p>His argument has merit, though it&#8217;s worth remembering that once upon a time districts did handle transportation in-house, and that many decided to outsource the work to save money. There&#8217;s also the fact that error and mismanagement are just as possible with district-employed staff as they are with private contractors.</p><p>Lastly, there are convoluted state rules regarding transportation, both in terms of driver clearances &#8212; the contractor&#8217;s responsibility, but the district must have records on file &#8212; and state reimbursement, which hinges on mileage, age of vehicles and so much voodoo even the people who deal with it struggle to explain it.</p><p>It is fitting that Gorham and Jones took some blame for the failures in their districts, but the problems may go beyond the men themselves. A deeper review of the whole system of student transportation for public schools, both at the local and state level, may well be merited.</p><p style="text-align: right;"><em> &#8212; Times Leader</em></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Suspended Superintendent Bill Jones gathers his thoughts as a reporter asks him questions after the Hanover Area School Board meeting Friday at Hanover Area High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_han_meet1_faa-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Suspended Superintendent Bill Jones gathers his thoughts as a reporter asks him questions after the Hanover Area School Board meeting Friday at Hanover Area High School. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>

Our View: Local school districts should take close look at transportation