Anonymous wrote:My kids also go to one of those "Elementary and Middle schools are adjacent" places.

Neither of them are bus riders, so we personally havent been affected by this debacle, but I know a lot of people that have.

I would love to see how the procurement went down to award the contract to Zum on the supposed promise of "electric buses". Something really stinks there.

I agree about the Zum contract- I think something very bad will come out in a report and that is why he is retiring mid year. I think he would have gotten fired. He was not a good leader- all talk and no action, added stupid positions at Central Office. I am glad that my kid’s finished high school and we are done with HCPSS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's an article from the Baltimore Banner about the bus crisis earlier this year:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/howard-county-school-bus-zum-7MJFQPVPUNFYTFSL24W7ZX77KE/

Seems much of it stemmed from a desire to give high schoolers a later start time, which is good in theory, but they completely botched the bussing transition. Self-inflicted wound.

AACPS did all of this last year - same situation with wanting to give high schoolers a later start time, and resulting in a bussing fiasco. With some time and a new CEO, things have really settled down this yera, and the high schoolers get their later start time that is so beneficial to their health and academics, and the busses seem to be working well this year.
Hopefully HoCo will be able to learn a lot this year and adjust the busses as needed ASAP

I will admit that I haven't followed what's going on in HCPSS as closely as in years past. I understand the anger about the bus issues, but is anyone happy with the later start times? This was something I always wanted when my kids were in HCPSS. Everyone is so against Dr. M., but does anyone appreciate not having their high school student at the bus stop at 6:25 a.m.?

Anonymous wrote:Here's an article from the Baltimore Banner about the bus crisis earlier this year:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/howard-county-school-bus-zum-7MJFQPVPUNFYTFSL24W7ZX77KE/

Seems much of it stemmed from a desire to give high schoolers a later start time, which is good in theory, but they completely botched the bussing transition. Self-inflicted wound.

AACPS did all of this last year - same situation with wanting to give high schoolers a later start time, and resulting in a bussing fiasco. With some time and a new CEO, things have really settled down this yera, and the high schoolers get their later start time that is so beneficial to their health and academics, and the busses seem to be working well this year.
Hopefully HoCo will be able to learn a lot this year and adjust the busses as needed ASAP

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids also go to one of those "Elementary and Middle schools are adjacent" places.

Neither of them are bus riders, so we personally havent been affected by this debacle, but I know a lot of people that have.

I would love to see how the procurement went down to award the contract to Zum on the supposed promise of "electric buses". Something really stinks there.

I'm with you. I just feel there is more to the story than we know right now.

Of course, the more we learn about the bus situation this year, the worse it looks. Here is an article from the Baltimore Banner from today:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/howard-county-school-bus-zum-7MJFQPVPUNFYTFSL24W7ZX77KE/

The district definitely contributed to the problems at the start of the year by making late changes to the routes.

But again, I want to know more about how the procurement was drafted. The article suggests, without really explaining, that the district "created a new process" for the procurement" but doesn't explain that point.

Ya think?

It is amazing how many errors were made in the implementation of changing school start times and busing.

For the start times, trying to move adjacent schools to have start times less than 30 minutes (sometimes at the same time) without providing additional support or buses. Trying to have double the number of students in buses and cars arriving in the same 15 minute window was incredibly stupid. The schools did not have practice drills on how to manage the increased traffic due to overlapping start times.

Engaging a new bus vendor and not enforcing actual tests of the buses with practice drives. On the first day, school was delayed over an hour because the vendor did not practice getting buses out of the lot and it took 45 minutes for all buses to clear the lot. It took until the 3rd day before they implemented a staggered departure time for the drivers. On the first day, some of the out-of-town drivers had never test-driven their routes and some got lost or drove the wrong way because they did not know the route. On the first day, many drivers were late because the bus company did not actually test how long each route would take and assigned approximate route times to the drivers (who did not know their routes). Many of the route times were not calculated taking into account traffic signals and actual morning rush hour traffic. So, many of the drivers route times were completely incorrect. In some cases, because drivers did not know their routes, they missed children and many children's parents had to drive them to school because buses never showed up. It took almost the entire first week before all children who were bus riders were actually picked up by their assigned bus to get to school. The schools did not have enough buses to run the routes. After the school year started, the school district had to rent additional buses from local bus companies because the out-of-state bus company did not provide enough buses despite assuring the school district THE WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED, that they had enough buses.

And this is just the functional part of delivering service. It doesn't even deal with the promises and contractually documented contract features that were supposed to justify the additional costs, like having green buses, having a bus-tracking app that parents could us to track the status and time of the buses their kids were supposed to ride.

Martinaro failed with both initiatives this year, changing school times and changing bus vendors. The failures cost the school district a lot of money and created a lot of havok that the schools are still trying to fix (1.5 quarters into the school year). He is retiring before the school district can fire him.

In fairness, didn't the school board change the start times based on the recommendations from the outside consultant?

Also, the bolded portion of the post above related to the information provided in the Baltimore Banner article, based on new information, stating that on top of all the problems that Zum had, HCPSS contributed to the disastrous opening by changing routes at the last minute, which meant that there couldn't be practice runs.

Two days before Zum’s roughly 200 brand-new buses would file out of their Jessup bus yard and pick up thousands of Howard County students for the first time, the transportation company was caught off guard — school system leaders had changed some of the bus routes, and some of them contained errors.

Some routes that previously called for buses now needed vans. Some of the routes listed zero kids for pickup. And their new drivers, many unfamiliar with the area, wouldn’t have a chance to do a test run of the revised routes.

“What a disaster,” wrote one Zum executive in an email that Saturday morning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids also go to one of those "Elementary and Middle schools are adjacent" places.

Neither of them are bus riders, so we personally havent been affected by this debacle, but I know a lot of people that have.

I would love to see how the procurement went down to award the contract to Zum on the supposed promise of "electric buses". Something really stinks there.

I'm with you. I just feel there is more to the story than we know right now.

Of course, the more we learn about the bus situation this year, the worse it looks. Here is an article from the Baltimore Banner from today:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/howard-county-school-bus-zum-7MJFQPVPUNFYTFSL24W7ZX77KE/

The district definitely contributed to the problems at the start of the year by making late changes to the routes.

But again, I want to know more about how the procurement was drafted. The article suggests, without really explaining, that the district "created a new process" for the procurement" but doesn't explain that point.

Ya think?

It is amazing how many errors were made in the implementation of changing school start times and busing.

For the start times, trying to move adjacent schools to have start times less than 30 minutes (sometimes at the same time) without providing additional support or buses. Trying to have double the number of students in buses and cars arriving in the same 15 minute window was incredibly stupid. The schools did not have practice drills on how to manage the increased traffic due to overlapping start times.

Engaging a new bus vendor and not enforcing actual tests of the buses with practice drives. On the first day, school was delayed over an hour because the vendor did not practice getting buses out of the lot and it took 45 minutes for all buses to clear the lot. It took until the 3rd day before they implemented a staggered departure time for the drivers. On the first day, some of the out-of-town drivers had never test-driven their routes and some got lost or drove the wrong way because they did not know the route. On the first day, many drivers were late because the bus company did not actually test how long each route would take and assigned approximate route times to the drivers (who did not know their routes). Many of the route times were not calculated taking into account traffic signals and actual morning rush hour traffic. So, many of the drivers route times were completely incorrect. In some cases, because drivers did not know their routes, they missed children and many children's parents had to drive them to school because buses never showed up. It took almost the entire first week before all children who were bus riders were actually picked up by their assigned bus to get to school. The schools did not have enough buses to run the routes. After the school year started, the school district had to rent additional buses from local bus companies because the out-of-state bus company did not provide enough buses despite assuring the school district THE WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED, that they had enough buses.

And this is just the functional part of delivering service. It doesn't even deal with the promises and contractually documented contract features that were supposed to justify the additional costs, like having green buses, having a bus-tracking app that parents could us to track the status and time of the buses their kids were supposed to ride.

Martinaro failed with both initiatives this year, changing school times and changing bus vendors. The failures cost the school district a lot of money and created a lot of havok that the schools are still trying to fix (1.5 quarters into the school year). He is retiring before the school district can fire him.

Anonymous wrote:My kids also go to one of those "Elementary and Middle schools are adjacent" places.

Neither of them are bus riders, so we personally havent been affected by this debacle, but I know a lot of people that have.

I would love to see how the procurement went down to award the contract to Zum on the supposed promise of "electric buses". Something really stinks there.

I'm with you. I just feel there is more to the story than we know right now.

Of course, the more we learn about the bus situation this year, the worse it looks. Here is an article from the Baltimore Banner from today:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/howard-county-school-bus-zum-7MJFQPVPUNFYTFSL24W7ZX77KE/

The district definitely contributed to the problems at the start of the year by making late changes to the routes.

But again, I want to know more about how the procurement was drafted. The article suggests, without really explaining, that the district "created a new process" for the procurement" but doesn't explain that point.

Here's an article from the Baltimore Banner about the bus crisis earlier this year:

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/howard-county-school-bus-zum-7MJFQPVPUNFYTFSL24W7ZX77KE/

Seems much of it stemmed from a desire to give high schoolers a later start time, which is good in theory, but they completely botched the bussing transition. Self-inflicted wound.

My kids also go to one of those "Elementary and Middle schools are adjacent" places.

Neither of them are bus riders, so we personally havent been affected by this debacle, but I know a lot of people that have.

I would love to see how the procurement went down to award the contract to Zum on the supposed promise of "electric buses". Something really stinks there.

Anonymous wrote:I live in Howard County and don't disagree with any of the above, but at the same time I havent seen anyone on the school board, Council, or Calvin Ball really pile on him at all for those issues.

I get the feeling he could have coasted out the last two years of his contract if he wanted to. There didnt seem like there was nearly enough heat on him as there should have been.

I have not actually attended the BoE meetings, but some of my friends who are teachers say that the teacher's union has been complaining to the BoE about Martirano's (lack of) plans and his poor response to the various problems. The fact that he spent the two weeks before school started assuring everyone that everything was planned and under control and the first week of school distinctly proved that the plans were poorly thought out, none had been tested, and there were no "plans B or C" showed that he really didn't do a very good job. Then his director of transportation resigned and he still did not have good solutions for many of the problems.

Case in point, my children go to a middle school that is on the same campus and uses the same driveways and loading/unloading zones as the local elementary school. In the old system, the schools started 30 minutes apart. One set of buses went around and picked up the middle school kids and brought them to to school, then they went and did another circuit of the same route and picked up the ES kids. Everyone got to school on time, one set of buses dedicated to the two schools and things worked. There were even times that some middle school kids missed the bus and were able to wait and catch the ES bus (same drivers, so they knew the kids) and get to school, walk to the other school and sign in late. They would get in during first period.

This year, Martirano and his grand new school time plans, made both schools start at the same time. So, instead of 600 kids arriving, then another 600 kids arriving 30 minutes later, you had 1200 kids arriving at the same time for both schools. The driveway was jammed with so many parents dropping off that the buses were stuck 4-5 blocks away and could not get through. The school system did not allocate enough buses, so some buses were dropping off kids late, then having to go and loop around and pick up a second load. The first week of schools, some kids were over 60 minutes late for school due to the bus issues. When they finally "fixed" the issue, they separated the school start times by 15 minutes, so now the ES starts 15 min after the MS. But we still have problems. The ES will not allow parents to drop off kids more than 15 min early. But many parents get to school 20-25 min early, so 5-10 min before the MS starts. But the ES parents are already queued up and blocking the driveway. So, I can get there 10 min before MS starts, but may take 10 minutes of waiting for the ES parents who are blocking to driveway, but are not allowed to drop off their kids. I have had times that my kids have had to break the rules and get out of the car in the middle of the driveway with buses going by, just so that they can make it to the doors before school start. This is just one of the Martirano special treats that make this school year so broken. There are many others. And the teachers and parents are fed up with him sending out messages that everything is good and rosy, when they aren't. He wasn't doing himself any favors by only talking about the things he fixed and not talking about the problems he hasn't yet fixed. And he still never came up with a good explanation why we are spending much more money for the California based busing company, not getting the things they planned and not holding them financially responsible for the costs that they've added to the county due to their breach of contracts.

Right now, whoever is going to step in when Martinaro retires is going to inherit a broken system that they'll have to spend their entire interim period trying to get back to what we used to have before this contract. Hopefully the breach of contract will be enough that they can cancel this contract for next school year and perhaps find a way to reinstate the previous MD bus contractors and subcontractors, so that we'll be back to what we used to have. It wasn't great, but it was much better than the new contract and it cost way less.

I live in Howard County and don't disagree with any of the above, but at the same time I havent seen anyone on the school board, Council, or Calvin Ball really pile on him at all for those issues.

I get the feeling he could have coasted out the last two years of his contract if he wanted to. There didnt seem like there was nearly enough heat on him as there should have been.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Martiriano announces retirement today.

Why did he quit in the middle of the school year? Because of the bus issues?

The bus issues, the changing school start times that were done without looking at the schools themselves and the fact that as problems arose, he was slow and ineffective to respond. His director of transportation resigned and Martirano was still not able to fix problems. Three weeks into the school year, there were still kids who had no buses and parents had to bring their kids to school late. It's now second quarter and our school is still not enforcing late policy for first period because some buses are still not able to consistently get kids to school before school starts.

His new plans have cost the school district a lot of money and created more problems and still have not offered several of the options that he touted as the reason to hire this company out of state (like the bus tracker and green fuel buses). We didn't have enough buses and drivers and I still see some unlabeled buses that are driving through our neighborhood every day. Those unlabeled buses are ones that had to be rented after the fact because the out-of-state bus company did not (and do not) have enough buses. And we are paying extra for the extra bus rentals. So, in addition to the massive failure of the bus company and the fact that the school district is not holding the contractor responsible, the county is paying for the extra buses. This has been a huge money sink with much poorer service than the MD based company that was replaced.

Martirano has had no good answer for the last 2 months and finally realized that he needs to retire before he is fired. He would never have made it through this school year based on the disastrous last 5 months.

Only thing I can think of are the bus issues and the problems surrounding it. It looked like amateur hour.

The bus routes have largely been fixed, but many families were switched from bussing to extended walkers. Those parents are still pissed. There were a lot of livid people in the town halls.

Doesn’t feel like a problem that would force him to retire, but maybe something happened behind the scenes we don’t know about. Who knows?

Anonymous wrote:Martiriano announces retirement today.

Why did he quit in the middle of the school year? Because of the bus issues?

Martiriano announces retirement today.

Anonymous wrote:Does Howard have 50% rules and consistent attendance issues? Do they solve problems with Restorative Justice and no actual consequences?

Trying to decide if things are better in Howard or trending downward like MCPS. Thanks

Or try Pulaski, Tennessee. That’s where the Klan was founded.