District to negotiate specialized-transportation contracts; board hears complaints about bus communications and para staffing reconcilation

(Note: This article covers three connected operational items discussed during the March 10 Manchester School Committee meeting: specialized-transportation contract negotiations, recent bus-route communication problems, and the district's reconciliation of paraprofessional position records.)

The board approved a consent agenda item that clears the way for the district to begin negotiating contracts for specialized transportation services stemming from an awarded RFP. Deputy/Director of Operations Ransdell said the district will "begin negotiating those contracts as soon as tomorrow" and expects the specialized transportation services to start in the fall.

At the meeting board members raised complaints about recent bus-route changes and communication lapses that left some families unsure whether buses would arrive. Ransdell said the district conducted its annual midyear review of routes and acknowledged communication breakdowns during the first year the district is running the routes directly. "We did have some route changes and some things like that, and we did have some hiccups in communication that we were not satisfied with the level at which it took place. I will apologize for those hiccups that did take place," he said.

Administrators described steps now in place: when a route change affects many families, transportation will communicate directly; when changes affect only a small number of students, the school will communicate with those families to avoid confusing wide-scale notices. Ransdell also said the district has a tap-on/tap-off card system capable of showing bus locations once the system is fully implemented, but rollout has been delayed because of card-management issues and frequent replacements; the district plans a stronger implementation and will return to the board seeking support for that.

Paraprofessional staffing reconciliation Separately, administrators described a multi-week project to reconcile paraprofessional job postings and actual positions. The reconciliation closed out old, open requisitions and re-tied paraprofessional positions to student Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and the budget.

HR and special-education staff told the board they "zeroed out" legacy requisitions and began again to ensure open requests align to IEPs and to budget lines. The administration said it found some cases where contracted service providers and in-house hires had been counted inconsistently in the system, and officials are correcting that going forward. HR said they would bring a detailed presentation on para numbers to the full board; members asked for an up-to-date count of current openings.

Budget and operations context At the meeting a board member said the change to special-education transportation is expected to produce about $2,000,000 in savings in the coming year, in addition to roughly $960,000 in general-transportation savings already expected in the current budget. The administration attributed some early-season service and communication hiccups to the district now operating routes directly and said it will tighten responsibility, communication protocols, and the tap-on/tap-off rollout.

Outcome and next steps - Administration will begin contract negotiations for specialized transportation immediately and expects services to begin in the fall. - Transportation will adjust communication protocols: district-level notices for wide changes; school-level outreach for small-population adjustments; a strengthened roll-out plan for the tap-on/tap-off tracking system (students must reliably have ID cards for full functionality). - HR and special-education teams will present a detailed paraprofessional staffing reconciliation and the current count of open positions to the board at a future meeting.

Speakers cited in this article include Mr. Ransdell (transportation/operations), Superintendent Camille and members of the HR and special-education teams.