In a brisk one-hour meeting Monday night, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) school committee launched into the new school year with the decision to assume ownership and management of the Up-Island Regional School District’s (UIRSD) school bus fleet.
Currently the regional high school owns and manages a fleet of buses, and also manages and pays all drivers, including the UIRSD’s, and transportation manager Jimmy Flynn through its budget. The Tisbury, Edgartown, and Oak Bluffs elementary school districts pay the high school a fee of $31,000 a year per bus to transport their students, which covers trips to and from school, on-Island field trips and activities, and a portion of maintenance. Tisbury, for example, has 181 runs twice a day in a school year, totaling approximately $62,000.
School committee member Robert Lionette of Chilmark explained that the UIRSD’s proposal to turn its buses over to the high school stemmed from discussions last year about liability concerns. Should students from Edgartown, Tisbury, and Oak Bluffs be injured in an accident while riding on a UIRSD-owned bus on a field trip, for example, the UIRSD would be responsible for those costs — unlike the high school, which apportions insurance deductible costs among the towns. Special education transportation costs are included in the superintendent’s shared services budget.
Under the proposal accepted by the high school committee, the UIRSD’s six buses, valued at approximately $120,000, will be folded into the high school’s 20-bus fleet, and the UIRSD will pay a per run fee as do the down-Island elementary school districts.
Although the change shifts $120,000 in bus transportation expenses from the UIRSD to the high school, superintendent of schools James Weiss said the new arrangement is a plus for both.
“It’s a win for the up-Island school district, because they get out of the liability and bus business, and it’s a win for you because you have control of the system and everybody will pay, based on a fair, per-run fee,” he told the school committee members.
In other business, the school committee approved the first reading of a new Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools policy on employees’ background checks. Once adopted, MVPS will obtain federal and state background check information through both Statewide Applicant Fingerprint Identification Services and Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI). Mr. Weiss said fingerprinting would be required only for volunteers that have direct and unsupervised contact with children, for example, a chaperone on an overnight trip. The cost for fingerprinting is $55 for professional educators and $35 for volunteers, and is available at the superintendent’s office by an employee paid by MVPS and the state’s contractor.
The school committee meeting was a first for new staff members that included principal Gil Traverso, School Resource Officer Sgt. Michael Marchand, and special education director Nancy Dugan, as well as for former teacher Elliott Bennett in her new role as assistant principal.
In his first report to the committee, Mr. Traverso said the high school staff pulled off a successful opening day like a “well-oiled machine.” He also praised guidance director Mike McCarthy and his department for doing an excellent job with students’ schedules, and assistant principal Andrew Berry for his part in making freshmen orientation “the best I’ve seen in all my years in education.”
The committee’s budget subcommittee set dates for Fiscal Year 2016 budget meetings: Oct. 6, 6 pm; Oct. 15, 8:30 am; Nov. 3, 6 pm; and Nov. 19, 8:30 am. A public hearing on the budget will be held at 7 pm on November 24, with certification by the school committee on December 1.