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Buses in the First Student bus company lot on Middletown Avenue in New Haven in March, 2020.
Photo: Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut MediaBuses in the First Student bus company lot on Middletown Avenue in New Haven in March, 2020.
Buses in the First Student bus company lot on Middletown Avenue in New Haven in March, 2020.
Buses in the First Student bus company lot on Middletown Avenue in New Haven in March, 2020.
NEW HAVEN — School officials say that, despite challenges, a fleet of school buses is ready to take to the road safely when in-person school resumes in November.
With concerns afoot about disinfecting and social distancing on school buses, the Board of Alders Education Committee this week spoke to district and transportation officials about planning they’d done for transporting city students.
The workshop was planned before the COVID-19 pandemic. Alder Anna Festa, D-10, requested the session after the decision to eliminate thousands of bus stops led to hundreds of students being skipped over for transportation at the start of the 2019-20 school year.
Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto told the alders that the district’s poor communication — with bus cards being mailed out two days prior to the start of school — led to the mass confusion. However, once the district handled the mistakes, it accomplished a much-needed update to bus routes to increase efficiency and reduce costs, he said.
“I’m happy to hear a lot of those issues were rectified and addressed,” Festa said.
School district officials do not expect families to be caught unaware this year, noting bus cards were sent out, so most families know what route their children are on.
However, the prevalence of COVID-19 has kept school transportation a concern.
“We want to be sure the kids are following protocol and behaving themselves, particularly in regard to the COVID situation,” Festa said.
Pinto said buses will be disinfected after every service with Signet Neutral Disinfectant.
“It’s both safe for use and effective at killing the SARS/COVID-19 virus,” Pinto said.
Buses will be loaded back to front in the morning, with the first student picked up each morning going to the back of the bus and each subsequent student sitting a row ahead on the alternate side. In the afternoon, students will line up in that order before boarding the bus, leaving the first student to be dropped off in the front of the bus so he or she does not bypass other students when stepping off the vehicle.
New Haven’s schools are operating remotely now, other than 11 special education classrooms. Although only about 100 students were learning in New Haven Public School buildings as of Monday, the district also provides transportation for charter and parochial schools.
Paul Demaio, a senior manager for First Student, said the company is operating 65 buses in New Haven as of this week; bus monitors are on every bus currently running, although there are more than 200 buses that do not have bus monitors ready to work. Pinto said funding for bus monitors is “not inexpensive.” The district has projected it would cost $2 million.
“We recognize the challenges of having kids stay in their seat and getting antsy, so we have posted to hire additional bus monitors,” Pinto said. “There is going to be signage on the bus to remind kids to stay seated and maintain their mask at all times and social distancing.”
Pinto said there are no mandatory temperature checks for students and Demaio said there are no mandatory temperature checks for drivers.
“We’ll encourage all families to do self checks at home,” Pinto said.
Demaio said temperature checks were found to be unreliable in planning because of the influence weather has on thermometer readings.
When Alder Eli Sabin, D-1, asked whether there was a plan to ventilate buses such as keeping windows open. Demaio said drivers were issued guidance to keep windows open as a ventilation best practice, but there is no requirement to do so.
brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
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September 24, 2020 at 07:00PM
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