_{Photo by Persephone Rose}

Though she thanked trustees for taking her concerns seriously, Lisa Sedgwick rejected the idea that implementing a digital system for reporting and tracking mechanical issues in district vans would cost $70,000.

Sedgwick, a teacher at Mary Peacock Elementary School, told Del Norte Unified School District trustees on Thursday that free electronic tools exist that allow people to fill out forms that are dated and time stamped and QR codes can make them available when a van is returned after hours.

“If you’re really stuck on having a paper form, which they never tell you when you make a complaint in person [that there’s] this form to fill out — it was never handed to me when I complained about the rotors two years ago — that could be handed to you when you’re handing over the keys,” she said. “There are so many tools that are easy to use and they’re free. There’s no reason to spend $70,000 when you have these tools available.”

Seventy-thousand is the dollar figure transportation director Chris Armington quoted when trustees asked why he hadn’t yet adopted a digital fleet management system. Armington’s presentation came after Sedgwick, her husband, Del Norte High School Music Director Dan Sedgwick, and others questioned whether the vans the district uses to ferry students to athletic events, competitions and field trips were safe.

According to Lisa Sedgwick, her concern over the brake rotors stems from an experience she had about two years ago driving one of the vans where the “wheel was jerked completely out of my hand and I almost lost control.”

On Thursday, Armington told trustees that communication is “one of the big monsters” his department is tackling. Another issue is that DNUSD only has four dedicated trip vans that are starting to show their age. Armington said he sometimes pilfers from County Office of Education programs — Castle Rock Charter School has two vans, one vehicle is dedicated to the agriculture program and a fourth is at Community School — but there are days when all eight are spoken for.

Staffing is another monster, according to Armington. DNUSD currently has three service technicians and just hired a fourth but it “wouldn’t hurt to have another one” Armington said. And there’s an ongoing shortage of bus drivers. DNUSD has 14 drivers on staff and one substitute to cover a total of 15 routes, Armington said.

Ideally the district would have eight to 10 available to take students to athletic events and field trips — anyone can drive a trip van, though it takes specific training and credentials to be a bus driver, Armington said.

Armington said he’d also like to have 18 bus drivers on staff with four substitutes, pointing out that they’re also often using buses for field trips and athletic events.

“We typically will have one or two absences per week, and that has more to do with illnesses or doctors appointments,” Armington told trustees. “That would also help cover routes where a [bus] driver is a trip driver.”

Armington said four applicants are going through the inspection process to become bus drivers. He’s hoping all four applicants are successful.

To address concerns regarding vehicle safety, Armington said he’s hoping to have a staff member dedicated to overseeing maintenance in the district’s vans. Instead of the previous 90-day checks, vehicles are undergoing maintenance inspections every 45 days, he said.

A digital management system would help keep a paper trail of those maintenance logs as well as deficiency reports and issues with a van that may have come up during a trip, Armington said. Every vehicle will also go through a pre-trip inspection, which includes ensuring the lights work, tire pressure is good, the engine and fluids check out and the vehicle is clean.

New vehicles are also a need, though costs have increased. Armington said that a new van to transport students could cost between $68,000 and $70,000.

Trustees acknowledged this need, directing staff to come back with options for purchasing new vehicles as well as purchasing and implementing the digital management system Armington spoke of at its next meeting in January.

Board President Charlaine Mazzei brought up the graveyard of defunct vehicles at the district office.

“If you can’t confidently let someone take them out we shouldn’t have them anymore,” she said. “I’ve been walking the track in the morning and in the fenced area we have two buses, a box truck and a couple of vans that are just sitting there. Not only should they not be there, it looks ugly.”

Assistant Superintendent of Business Jeff Napier said the transportation director normally brings the need to surplus vehicles to his attention and they take it to the Board of Trustees to approve a surplus sale, which is done via a closed auction.

Mazzei’s colleague, Abby Crist, who represents Del Norte County District 2, brought up the bus driver shortage, pointing out that earlier this year some students attending ‘O Me-nok Learning Center in Klamath were unable to get to school as a result.

Saying that “what she’s hearing is” buses are probably the safest vehicle to transport kids, Crist said that rather than having vans take students to athletic events, maybe the district should work with a third-party contractor to use buses to transport large groups. When the group of students is small, she said, that’s when vans should be used.

Both Napier and Armington discouraged the Board from taking this step. Armington, who has been DNUSD’s transportation director for a year, said his previous employer, First Student, would likely want to take over.

“They want to absorb the district as part of their own where what happens is they take the buses, the drivers then become theirs — they go through the hiring process again,” he said. “Where I came from, [though] different contractors have different policies, drivers then become part-time not full time, so they lose benefits.”

Crist then said that once DNUSD has enough drivers, a bus should always be the first option when it comes to transporting students on field trips and other activities to save wear and tear on the vans.

Before the bus driver shortage, administrators would regularly deny requests to use a van for field trips, saying a bus was needed instead, Superintendent Jeff Harris told Crist. If DNUSD hires the four drivers that are currently going through the training and certification process as well as three or four more substitutes, Harris said the district would resurrect that practice especially if the Board of Trustees needs to approve the trip itself.

Pointing out that another item on Thursday’s agenda was to approve 19 overnight or out-of-state field trips, Mazzei asked Armington if he was confident those vans would be safe. Many of those field trips are scheduled within two to three weeks, Mazzei said.

“We’ll have our four dedicated vans that will be ready to go,” Armington told her.

District 5 trustee Michael Greer said he went over the district’s process for reporting and addressing mechanical issues in district vehicles. One issue that was brought to his attention concerned a seat belt that had been duct taped together. According to Greer, the duct tape was red and anyone driving the van was told not to seat a passenger there.

Armington said he removed the seatbelt.

Greer then brought up a trailer that belongs to the Del Norte High School band whose broken axle nearly kept them from a competition in Eugene in November. According to Greer, there was confusion over whose responsibility it was to maintain that trailer. 

“We didn’t know we were supposed to take care of [it],” he said. “Do we know where the title for that is?”

Armington told Greer that he had a file with the titles for the district’s fleet of vehicles and he hasn’t found the title specific to the trailer.

Dan Sedgwick told Greer that the trailer was donated to DNUSD about three to four years ago.

Despite the discussion, and the Board’s focus on ensuring the district’s vehicles are safe, Dan Sedgwick said it’s really hard for him to get into a district van currently. The district’s maintenance records aren’t clear, he said, adding it showed a four year service gap for one of its vans.

Sedgwick also addressed the issue of the trailer.

Sedgwick asserted that one of the district mechanics lied to a parent by saying he had brought the trailer to them the day before the trip. Sedgwick said he has emails and text messages that prove otherwise and called for an independent review of both the trailer’s axle and the wheel that became disconnected.“I have the wheel and it shows a lot of information,” he said. “It’s hard to tell what happened to the trailer when you don’t have the other piece. That parent found it on the freeway for me and picked it up.”