WCPS bus grades improve
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 17, 2015 10:32 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Robert Lee, Wayne County Public Schools transportation director, talks about the state's latest inspection of the system's school bus fleet. Lee told the Board of Education the system enjoyed its best score in four years.
The most recent inspection scores of the Wayne County Public Schools' bus fleet shows a reversal of what had been three years of declines.
However, the county "still has a lot of work to do," transportation director Robert Lee told the Board of Education Monday night.
The state conducts the evaluations annually.
"They more or less give you a snapshot of what they think you are doing," Lee said. "They give you a score. This year we had our inspection in December. Our score was 59."
Over the three previous years, the scores were 85, 76 and 86 respectively, he said. The county's 10-year average is 71.
"Keep in mind though the lower the score, the better," Lee said. "Now keep in mind that even though our score has improved we are not by any means out of the woods."
Lee replaced former transportation director, Raymond Smith, who was terminated May 15. Lee's first official day was July 8.
"Is that (improvement) because of something that you did that we don't know about?" board member Dr. Dwight Cannon said. "Or is it because it was on course to improve because that is a big disparity between what it was and what it is."
Lee said he could not take full credit for the improvement, but that he thinks his management technique played a role.
"I set up a plan, and we try to stick to the plan," he said.
Lee said he is a "hands-on" supervisor who might be seen pumping fuel, checking oil or even sweeping up.
"I lead by example so maybe that inspired some of my people," he said. "We have brought some new people in, and we are trying to move forward. But we are by no means out of the woods."
Lee said in his six months with the county he had had to replace six mechanics. Two died and others were lured away by other counties that offer better pay, he said.
"I only have 14 positions and that has handicapped me," he said.
Cannon said he recalled previous discussions about the difficulty of hiring good mechanics and that they must have their own tool box and expensive equipment.
The county does have some specialized equipment, but mechanics are required to have their own tools, Lee said.
He said he would like for the department to have a tool allowance.
Pay is an issue as well.
"Some of the school bus drivers make just as much an hour as some of my mechanics do," Lee said. "I actually lost a mechanic to a maintenance department, and it paid him more to drive the trash truck than it did to be a mechanic.
"We have worked on some numbers and we have made some improvements."
The state score is good news that Lee said he hopes to build on by achieving goals he has set including increasing efficiency.
This past year the efficiency rate was 89 percent. Lee wants to see it increase to 91 percent. The state average is 93 percent.
"In addition to that we want to make sure that we reduce what we call non-drive time," he said. "That is the time that the bus drivers are getting paid and the buses are not moving. We want to optimize our routes.
"In other words, we want to make our routes more efficient. We want to take the shortest direction to get to where we are trying to go."
It is important, too, that the department complete preventive maintenance, such as oil changes, and monthly inspections on schedule as required by the state, he said.
"Monthly inspections, the state requires that we inspect every vehicle each month," he said. "To be quite honest with you, we are behind. But we are working on that."
Lee also wants to increase the number of "dual employees" -- people who work in the school system, but also drive a school bus.
Another goal, he said, is to replace some of the system's "aging' activity buses.
"Over one-half of the activity buses are more than 20 years old," Lee said. "Most are old school buses that the state has taken off the road."
Board Chairman Chris West asked if the county is getting any new activity buses from the state.
"We are getting 10 replacement school buses," Lee said. "That is going to be about $800,000, but the state actually pays for that."
Lee said he presented a plan to purchase new activity buses to Dr. Steven Taylor before he retired as superintendent.
"We can basically purchase those the same way the state buys school buses," Lee said. "We can do what is called a lease-purchase deal, a five-year deal. The average activity bus costs about $80,000.'
That spreads the cost over five years, he said.
"The advantage to that is we get some of these older buses off the road," Lee said. "Every year that we wait, it costs us more -- about five percent.
"So, we are really behind when it comes to buses. The last activity bus we purchased was in 2004. We have not bought a (activity) bus in 10 years. That is locally funded. The state does not do that for us."
West asked Lee if the department would be able to keep the inspections timely once the backlog is cleared.
It is possible that the state will change the inspection period from 30 to 45 days, Lee said.
"That would help some, but what you are doing is making sure that vehicle is safe for the road," Lee said. "I anticipate by the time school starts next school year we will be in a good position."
Lee said he had reviewed the records for the past 10 years and for the most part, the department had been behind on inspections.
It goes up and down, he said. During the last cycle, the department was behind about 35 inspections, he said.
"But we have to do 201 every month," he said. "When something breaks you have to fix it. You focus on fixing what is broke."