To the Editor:
It seems that Jefferson finally got a new school bus. When it became known that the old bus would not pass inspection this February, attempts to seek emergency funding for a new bus began.
Actually, the funding search began in December, 2013 when it was learned that the Department of Education had not received an application for school bus reimbursement.
Applications are required to be submitted to DOE in the month of November. Oddly, the $85,000 or so was not available in the school budget for some reason: $40,000 existed in the bus replacement budget line, and funding assistance from a town account was requested for the balance.
It seems to me that funding for replacement buses should be a simple automatic process. We inspect the buses twice a year; we know the expected life and should be able to predict accurately when a replacement will be required, and provide the funding for that.
In this case we waited until the bus would no longer pass inspection. In fact, it was reported that on its last run the front leaf spring “snapped.”
We put kids on a bus like that? That is not safe. We should be able to save up and pay for buses with school budgeting strategies that avoid thousands of dollars in repairs, and do not break leaf springs.
That is not happening, and that is one reason I am running for a seat on the Jefferson budget committee.
