School buses get better grades
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on May 31, 2016 1:46 PM
In the nearly two years since Robert Lee came on board as transportation director for Wayne County Public Schools, he has managed to steer the safety scores from among the worst in the state to closer to the state average.
After the state's recent unannounced visit -- randomly inspecting 20 school buses, which represents about 10 percent of the fleet -- the 2015-2016 score for the district came in at 42.5.
The lower the score the better.
"The lower the score indicates fewer defects found during the inspection," the consultant's report said. "The inspection score from last year was 59.32. The average score for the school districts in the eastern region last year was 39.76."
The way the safety inspection works, the more serious the infractions the more time-consuming to remedy them -- from a simple correction to detailed repairs, requiring the bus to be pulled from the road.
"During my inspection, five buses were taken out of service until repaired," the report said.
That is a marked improvement over the previous three years before Lee came on board -- when inspection scores came in at 85, 76 and 86, considered among the worst in the state. In 2014, 13 of the 23 buses inspected were pulled from the road following the inspection.
Lee was hired in July 2014, replacing former transportation director, Raymond Smith, who had held the role for a decade. Smith was terminated by the district in May 2014.
"When I inherited this position, we were up in the 70s and 80s," Lee said. "We basically reduced that score almost in half. And of course if you noticed, the state average from last year was 39, so we're right at the state average. We don't know the state average this year until they inspect all 100 counties, but we're very close to that.
"I'm not saying I'm satisfied, but I'm proud of the progress we have made."
His biggest concern, he said, is in accounting for physical inventory, the only area to receive an "unsatisfactory" score.
"The state gives you money. We work with an almost $5 million annual budget from the state, and of course we get local dollars as well," he said. "The state asks you to track all the dollars you spend, and they're OK with what you spend them on as long as it's legal.
"We have a system. We can disperse fluids, oil, transmission, antifreeze. We shut that system down. Now we have to ask for those fluids in order to regulate them. Basically, everything has to be accounted for."
While the state inspection is unannounced, Lee said it doesn't have to be as big of a surprise as one may think.
"Generally, DPI (Department of Public Instruction) or the manufacturers, they give us a heads up on things that are problematic," he said. "They send out tech bulletins that look for those. They know what's trending or certain year-group vehicles tend to have problems in certain areas."
Sometimes the issues are simple ones, but still contribute to a reduced score.
"We had two or three buses during the inspection that were parked because of tires," Lee said. "And in one case we even knew, we had a mechanic going up to change them, and he got redirected to do something else and didn't get it done.
"If that hadn't happened, our score would have been in the low 30s, but that's just life, because it could have gone in another direction, it could have been high 40s."
There are a lot of "moving pieces" to the transportation department of a school district that averages 19,000 students in 33 schools, Lee said.
"A lot of people don't realize this, but I manage the largest fleet of vehicles in this county, and then we have some 30-some-odd cars -- 18 drivers ed cars and over 50 percent of our mechanics are new to the shop," he said. "We have a very good team now. I won't say it's by chance, but it's just really come together, and we need to keep the technicians that we have."
One challenge has been keeping salaries comparable, as employees have historically moved westward to Johnston and Wake counties.
"We have 16 people actually working on vehicles, and that includes two guys driving the fuel truck, which they change tires and during the summertime they do general maintenance as well," he said. "But we have a staff of actually 24 people counting our district supervisors through TIMS (transportation information management system), clerks and so forth."
The district operates about 197 school buses, transporting almost 12,000 students a day, Lee said.
"We drive over 2 million miles every school year," he said. "That's a lot of moving parts. Over 2,000 gallons of fuel a day. You've got six guys out in the field. And then you've got people in the shop, doing oil changes and putting in transmissions."
Fortunately, he says, the district leadership -- the new superintendent, hired July 2015, and the school board -- have been supportive.
In recent months, he was able to purchase six new activity buses.
"That was the first purchase of activity buses in over 12 years," he said. "A big part of our problem was that our fleet was so antiquated. In fact, some of these buses we could not even actually source parts for them, because we have some 1980-some model buses.
"Last year, we got nine brand new (yellow) buses, which the state provided for us. This year, we're getting 14. That's almost 10 percent of our rolling fleet."
The other problem area, over which there is less control, is the lack of bus drivers. Lee said he is constantly on the lookout for those, with training planned during the upcoming summer months.
Beyond that, he said he has been pleased with the direction his staff and department are going.
"Things are starting (to level) out now," he said. "A lot of times when you're behind, you're putting out fires.
"I put out fires the first year, I mean constantly. Now we're in a position where we can start fine-tuning the fleet. And, barring no mass exodus of my technicians, we should be in really good shape next year. We're trying to do the things we need to do."