The warm weather was refreshing to start Sunshine Week and earlier posts on the Sunshine Law and Nazareth Area and Obtaining public information via Web sites leave me with what I consider to be the third important aspect of open government and that is being able to ask questions of government and get answers.
My experience in this regard is primarily with the Borough of Nazareth and Nazareth Area School District (NASD).
The Borough, until recently as noted earlier this week, did not have much information on its web site, so you had to either go to a meeting, call the Borough office, or email a member or officer of Council. Since the Borough does not have email of its own, oftentimes the email provided are personal accounts for volunteers, not full time employees and as a result I don't expect an immediate response.
The most effective way to get answers from the Borough is to call or ask during Public Comment. I've found the members to be very open and willing to explain without being condescending when questions are asked by the public at this time.
There is much room for improvement, but as the web site is expanded and more information is made available, there will hopefully be less need to seek information. Further, it would be nice if an email were set up similar to the NASD where a single address would forward to all Board Members and Officers. And non-private email would be available for use mayor@nazarethborough.gov (not a real address just an example) by officials.
The NASD I've found is hit and miss in responding. I've had readers indicate to me that their emails have gone unanswered, and I myself have had instances where I felt too much time was taken and that the response was less than satisfying. I've also had instances where I've received an immediate response. The NASD, unlike the Borough, has a dedicated, full-time staff with a corporate email structure so getting and responding to email ought to be done in a very timely fashion.
I have very few business colleagues who do not respond within a day even when traveling. The NASD responses tend to be in terms of weeks without even a "we received your inquiry and will reply once the information is available" or some similar acknowledgment that the issue is being looked into.
To their credit, in the fall, the NASD did add email to its administration list and created the administration@ and schoolboard@ addresses for the public to better communicate questions and concerns.
A recent experience I had is in my view a problem with the current response process to public inquiries and maybe sharing it publicly will result in positive changes that will benefit everyone.
On 2/23/07 at 8:30 a.m. I sent the following email to the administration@ address:
Was hoping someone could provide me with the following:
How many regular elementary bus runs do we currently have?
What is the average daily ridership for elementary?
How many secondary bus runs do we currently have?
What is the average daily ridership for secondary?
What is the current cost per bus per run (elementary and secondary combined as I recall it being set) in 2006-07?
Thank you and have a great weekend,
On 3/8/07 at 7:34 a.m. I followed up with an email to both the administration@ and schoolboard@ address with the following:
I submitted the question below on February 23, 2007 and have not yet received a response.
If you could please provide me with this information or the latest available information, it would be most appreciated.
Thank you,
I did receive a response from Board President Don Keller that day indicating that I would be receiving the information shortly. On 3/9/07 I received a package in the mail containing the School Bus Contract and a printout of the total students transported (which was in the board budget materials but didn't answer any of my questions). On 3/10/07 I sent the following to Don Keller, administration, and schoolboard:
Don,
I appreciate your help and being the only person to personally respond to this request.
I received in the mail on Friday an envelope with a copy of the current bus contract and a PDE-2089 Summary of Pupils Transported (2005-2006). There was no contact information or note indicating who sent it (return address had no office/person only NASD, 1 Education Plaza).
Unfortunately, these materials answered one question (the cost of a daily bus run) out of five that I asked.
I'll try to make the request easier by asking:
How many regular elementary bus runs does each school have (ie 4 for Shafer, 6 Bushkill, 6 Lower Nazareth)?
How many secondary bus runs do we currently have (ie 14)?
If we don't readily have available the average daily ridership for elementary and secondary, I will guesstimate this number based on enrollments and count of pupil transportation, which I have from posted materials.
I am requesting this information because by observation, most buses appear to be less than full and in light of the current budget challenges and cuts I'd like to see what the rostered reality is compared to this observation. As I'm sure you are aware our transportation costs have increased from $2.19M in 2002-03 to $3M in the 2007-08 and as a non-classroom impacting budget line this could be an area where cuts could be made to provide for requests that have been cut (such as elementary lap tops or new teachers) that do impact the classroom learning.
Any assistance would be very much appreciated.
This correspondence resulted in a phone call to my home on 3/14/07 from Judy Zavalydriga, Director of Human Resources & Transportation. From work I returned the phone call, which is not my preference in a cubicle environment email is much easier, but it didn't matter as I got voicemail. On the voice mail I again requested an email in response to my questions as I'd rather not be making personal calls at work.
As of this morning I've not yet received the email with the answer to the questions I asked. At 8:20 a.m. just prior to publishing this post I called the school, asked for Judy and was told that they didn't think she was in yet, but I could have her voice mail. So again I left a message requesting the information be emailed to me.
It has now been three weeks and the information that I requested should not be difficult to obtain, instead it ought to be a fundamental metric to evaluate the efficiency of our transportation system.
The point is that it should not be this difficult to get a few basic questions answered, no matter the subject or person making the request and this is an area of improvement that exists in different ways for both the Borough and NASD. Having said that I have seen improvement over the past twelve months and that is a good thing. Let's hope there is even more twelve months from now during next year's Sunshine Week.
11 comments:
For what it's worth -- here are my observations with regards to ridership on the buses.
During the years that my children attended LNES (they were walkers), I noticed most buses pulling in only 50% full and leaving the same way. I questioned some parents as to why they chose not to use the buses, and was told that they were able to give their kids a little extra time to sleep in, have breakfast, etc.. if they drove them in because the bus pickup time was too early.
As for the long parent pick-up line in the afternoons, it appeared as though quite a few grandparents were picking up, which leads me to believe it's a childcare issue in the afternoon.
Now that we have 'graduated' to middle school, I notice that the buses are full. I suspect the increased distance many parents would have to drive to the middle school or high school makes the bus more desirable.
And this is exactly the reason why I'm trying to get the actual rostered number of students.
In essence, if the NASD is rostering the buses properly, they could come in empty and we would maximize our reimbursement, but if they are only rostered at say 50 then we are losing out.
Of course if you can't get the information, you can't know the truth, so you can only use observation.
This information should not be difficult to provide. The most recent request was simply to tell me how many bus runs per school building there are.
People shouldn't have to wait three weeks or longer to have a question answered.
Sounds to me this type of analysis doesn’t exist, hence the buss are half full. It’ll be interesting what is finally provided to you.
No one can answer the question about the buses because they are too busy figuring Dr. Lesky's raise. He must be doing a grand job... see the board notes for Monday.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
I've notified every media person, union member, and community activist I know.
I'm not familiar with the supers' contract, but the a retroactive raise considering the teachers contract is wrong.
Again, thank you for pointing this out as early as possible.
custodians cannot even get a lousy 1/2hr overtime even if other people are absent & or an event such as snow. they must do their work plus all the other work in 8hrs. hope the kids are going to stay healthy.
Also it seems that a maintenance person was forced to resign after calling in sick and going to his cabin in the promised land (private property). The custodial supervisors folowed this person in their car on school time up to the promised land and video taped him.And asked how it felt to feel sick. also it has been noted by other employees that if you call in sick the supervisors are riding by their homes and checking.
The supervisors are also hiding in stair wells in the dark at night trying to write up people for taking a breather or getting a drink. they basically are trying to get rid of full time people and bring in part-timers. what a waste of time and money.
i can give you some inside information on the bus situation.Ms. Judy can't even read a map, so how do you expect her to give you the proper answers to your questions. There are very few buses that are completly full. The school district does not compare information from school year to school year.They have students listed to be picked up that no longer live at these addresses. We now take our special needs students to Wal-mart so that the teachers can shop for themselves. The District also arranged to have a family taken to a dental appointment because they had no other transportation. Students are assigned a bus seat but never use it because they get a ride to school. HOLY FAMILY also uses the bus system and some of the buses have maybe 2 or 3 students on them. I could go on about other transportation issues but the district would only deny that they happen because they sweep things under the carpet.
Anyone who can't even post a correctly spelled and punctuated sentence is not in a position to criticize the competence of others.
My spelling had 3 errors and according to my spell check, there were no errors on my puncuation. However, my facts are true. could it be Judy in Disguise that was offended?????
I have an answer to your question about the number of buses they use for elementary runs. Shafer 7, Bushkill 12, Lower Nazareth 12. Some of these buses run in the same developments as other buses. My friend is a driver and he tells me that discipline is not always given from the district. Some parents in Lower Nazareth have even called the police dept on drivers for items such as a child missing a bus. A driver having the door closed because of the weather, and the child calling his mom saying the driver would not let him on. Children sitting in their cars as the bus pulls up and taking their time by kissing the parent goodbye and getting their bags out of the back or trunk. Kids standing in the road and not moving for other traffic and kids not watching before crossing in front of traffic to get to their bus. The district takes the side of the parent and calls the driver on the carpet. Drivers have had to put up with so much and get no respect from the district. Kids who are real problems must be documented by the camera on a bus for proof. Some are punished and still allowed to ride the bus. Some kids who ride in the vans have gone in their pants, and the response has been, when they left school they were fine. In response to the letter regarding Ms. Judy, She only has a business degree and is paid over $100,000. We pay for her to go to all of these conferences--check the board minutes--- not one involved Transportation!!!! But of course there are more of her in the district that is hidden under Vic's coat tails. Remember we elect the board officials.
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