CitizensLighthouse

This year reports of late buses began the first week of school: frustrated, upset, and expect late buses.  Now some parents are fed up with continued problems of late or no-show buses into the seventh week of school, according to an ABC Actions News report.

History tells us one reason Hillsborough County school buses are late is driver shortages, yet in 2017 school district leaders were discussing how bell times were causing late buses.

On August 30, 2018 Candace Aviles reported that Tanya Arja, HCPS spokesperson, explained the district needed more drivers and was also trying to increase their pool of substitute drivers; that a driver shortage “could be adding to [bus] delays…”

On February 22, 2016 Sarah Rosario reported on late buses and Tanya Arja explained when drivers are on extended leave or call out sick and there are not enough drivers, then buses can be late.

In 2013, Danielle Hauser, Tampa Bay Times, reported what she was told about late buses:

A woman explained to me that they were short 10 bus drivers in our area, and until they could hire those drivers, some buses would do double runs.

Nothing seems to be different except bell times–buses have continued to be late or missing. Why isn’t the district reporting weekly late bus statistics compared to last year; is it better, the same, or worse?

CitizensLighthouse questioned the validity of changing bell times to fix late buses in April 2017, noting the causes for late buses summarized by Gibson Consulting Group did not appear to be fixed.  Are those problems fixed?  

Gibson Consulting Group (Gibson) made six recommendations “to achieve cost savings in Transportation” in their 2016 audit.  One of those six recommendations was “Increasing the staggering of bell schedules”.

Gibson Consulting Group (Gibson) also explains how changing bell schedules “to allow at least one hour between bell times” will cut costs:

…the Transportation Department could schedule more bus drivers and buses for three tiers [one driver serving three schools during the day], reducing the total number of bus drivers and buses required.  (145)

Then Gibson quantifies savings in bus drivers and attendants for staggering bell times, estimating savings of $2.7M annually (146).

While this could reduce the gap between the number of drivers needed and the number they have, the school district was still short drivers as of August 30.  Did changing bell times solve that problem?

According to Cindy Stewart, increasing the time between bells (elapsed time) is also a recommendation by the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), a national organization.  Their tagline is The Nation’s Voice for Urban Education.  Where is the report from CGCS that explains the reasons for that recommendation?

Susan Valdes, also on the Hillsborough County School Board, is listed as a 2017-2018 CGCS Executive Committee Member.

Cindy Stewart seemed to turn to CGCS in the School Board meeting on April 25, 2017 (time marker 2:16:47) before voting to approve the change in bell times:

I don’t believe the Gibson Report, Ms. Snively, is the first time that we’ve heard this…Council of Great City Schools brought this to us…the School Transportation Improvement plan had it in there as well…we will still have 10,000+ students late, next year [2017-2018], every day…

The problem with that statement is the Gibson Report recommended bell changes to cut costs.  Did some school board and district leaders conflate cost issues with late bus issues when this decision was made?  Melissa Snively was the only vote against changing bell times at this meeting.

Cindy Stewart also stated at that meeting “…bell times is not a transportation conversation.  This is an administrative conversation…”  

Bell schedule optimization is an operations problem because of its intimate relationship with bus routing.  In operations research these are commonly known as routing and scheduling problems.

When the district turns to state or national organizations (CGCS) for answers, the first question should be: Why can’t our staff solve the problem?

Has the bus driver absentee rate of 10% that Chris Farkas referenced in the April 25, 2017 board meeting been reduced?  How many students does that absenteeism rate impact if the district is still short both drivers and substitutes?

In April 2017 Superintendent Eakins posted a video implying the late bus problem was because certain bell times were too close together, referencing that we lack the standard number of minutes for drop-off and pick-up.

Eakins stated “across the State of Florida the standard is at least 55-75 minutes between bell times…”.  While some districts have instituted this hour-long (55-75 minute) elapsed time recommendation, not all districts have adopted this standard.

One size does not fit all.  We need winning solutions for getting students safely to and from school on time, and at a reasonable hour.

When the school district makes a change impacting all of its customers (change in bell schedule) they should provide the reports and statistics regarding the outcome of the communicated purpose. The purpose for the bell time change stated by Eakins: “At the heart of this decision is the need to secure appropriate instructional minutes for all our students”.  The concern is that students lose instructional minutes when buses are late.  Did the district establish a measurable target when they implemented this change? What are the results and have they met their stated goal?

Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) issues are stacking up: lead in the drinking water, non-functioning air conditioners, mold in schools, radon testing, late buses, and a first grader dropped 20 miles from home.  Is this because the state is underfunding school maintenance, as has been suggested by Superintendent Eakins, or is it mismanagement?

Accountability needs to sit with those responsible – local school district leaders (i.e. the School Board and leaders in Hillsborough County School District).  Would you continue to employ anyone whose actions lacked expertise, professionalism, or transparency?  How well would your family physician perform duties if you only required the physician to have a degree in biology? Likewise, you don’t hire a physician to be your auto mechanic.

Was the lack of transparency that occurred when the district started testing for lead without notifying parents due to a lack of state funding?  Parents should have been notified as soon as lead testing began, and as soon as any lead was found, so parents could consult their pediatricians in a timely manner with concerns.  Telling parents what is going on does not require money.  HCPS Operations seems to be in damage control mode.

In 2014 Chris Farkas was selected as the Chief of Facilities, heading the transportation, maintenance, custodian, and facilities departments.  The position was renamed Chief Operating Officer in 2015.  According to the Tampa Tribune, this position paid $137,248.  The operations department should be responsible for fixing transportation, a/c problems, mold remediation, and lead and radon testing.

An expensive audit in 2016 by Gibson Consulting Group (Gibson) identified a lack of credentials required for certain jobs in the school district.  The report noted that “operational leadership positions” needed upgraded job descriptions and that operational job descriptions were “generic” and lacked “technical requirements”.

In my opinion operational leadership positions (especially when logistics related) call for a degree in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, or Industrial Management; an MBA would be an additional plus for this type of position.

What qualifications did the Chief of Facilities have in 2014? In 2014 the Tampa Tribune reported Chris Farkas has a “…secondary education bachelor’s degree in comprehensive social sciences. He has a master’s degree in educational leadership from National Louis University.”  Educational Leadership is also HCPS’s preferred degree for the General Manager, Transportation position—which is not a technical degree.  That job description specifies its preferred certification: “Certifications in appropriate technical field preferred” – which is not the name of any certification.  Can anyone in the HCPS Operations Department discuss queuing theory, game theory, or develop linear programming models?

In 2017 the district said they needed to change school start and release times to increase the time between bells (elapsed time), because that elapsed time was the root cause for late buses.  Where is the data-driven evidence to support that root cause?  Several other known and documented causes for late buses were identified in Gibson’s audit.  The district decided to go with a one-size-fits-all (standard) recommendation for all urban school districts (that does not consider local traffic patterns or area needs).  What happened to the clearly identified problems causing late buses—were they rectified?

While HCPS was deciding on new bell times in 2017, MIT’s Operations Research Center won a challenge to provide solutions to the busing and bell time problems at Boston Public Schools.  If this is a challenge for operations research (OR) experts, how should anyone expect leader(s) who apparently do not have a degree related to this field to solve or even fully understand the problem and effectively communicate the problem with the public?  If this is the scope of the problem in our district, then do we have OR expertise on staff?

A successful industry example on a larger scale is ORION, built by UPS.  According to UPS, it began a prototype in 2008 and didn’t launch until 2013, completing in 2016.  While student riders are not “packages”, the concept is similar; it is a classic optimization in operations research problem.  A case study by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) explains who UPS had on their original team:

The development took place within the Operations Research and Advanced Analytics groups, starting with a small, diverse team: a PhD in operations research, an industrial engineer, a UPS business manager, and several software engineers. – BSR, March 2016

It is not coincidental that the composition of that UPS team reflects my recommendations for certain operational leadership positions.

Has the District Superintendent or Deputy Superintendent, Operations considered developing a partnership with the local INFORMS Chapter at USF or USF’s IMSE department?

If HCPS’s job description only requires an educational leadership degree, how should anyone expect the problem to be solved given the complexity?

The problem is not limited to late buses, fewer students being served can contribute to traffic problems and unsafe conditions, and the list of facilities concerns now includes a/c reliability, mold, lead, and radon.

In mid-2018 Chris Farkas was promoted to Deputy Superintendent, Operations, arguably the most important position in the school district.  The HCPS Operations Department now includes Transportation, Maintenance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Business Services, Growth Management and Planning, Student Nutrition, and Security and Emergency Management.

After rearranging school start times to fix late buses, are buses still late?  Check out one of Hillsborough School District’s tweets setting expectations for buses to be late up to 2.5 hours for two weeks; how is that acceptable?  Was this a poor solution that might not even work, placed on the backs of students and the families the district serves?

Are parents aware of the HCPS courtesy busing survey? How many buses are currently over-crowded? How many students have been picked-up or dropped-off late so far this year?  How much instructional time have students missed?  How many parents have been late to work because a bus was late picking-up?  Why aren’t bus statistics reported on the district website (transparency)?

The decisions that impact the success of student transportation and facilities conditions are impacted by the financial, business, and operational acumen of those managing district operations.  HCPS is the 8^th largest school district in the nation. Its general fund exceeds $1.5 billion and the tentative budget recommended on August 1, 2018 exceeds $3 billion.  The qualifications of our leaders, responsible for managing the district operations for over 200,000 students, should be top-notch.

Remember—you don’t hire a physician to be your auto mechanic.  It is easier to blame money than to fix political, operational, and leadership problems.  It is time for a new approach to running the school district. Parents need to objectively study the issues, and rally together to hold the school district leaders accountable for their actions and decisions.