St. Tammany News

A reorganization of the transportation department, including the hiring of four new personnel, sparked discussion and controversy at the usually routine committee as a whole meeting on business affairs and administrative matters Thursday night at the St. Tammany Parish School Board meeting room.

In an effort to upgrade and create a state of the art transportation department, the board hired new transportation director, Ronald J. Despenza, in the fall. Despenza was selected because of his reputation and expertise in improving school transportation departments, officials said.

Among the changes Despenza wants to implement are the creation of four new positions in the department: a driver training instructor to conduct ongoing training and specific training following any accident or mishap by a driver; a transportation investigator in charge of mechanics to get broken down buses back on the road; an investigator in charge of mapping new subdivisions, planning the best routes, directing investigators to areas; and an investigator in charge of GPS technology and other electronics.

The total cost of these new personnel would be about $150,000. This caused great concern among School Board members who flinched at the 33 percent increase in departmental office personnel.

Comments from board members included concern over such drastic changes at one time - why not start with two additional personnel or extend duties of present personnel to include these duties; the need for investigators on a management level that requires a higher salary; and possible duplication of existing job descriptions.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan answered criticism by saying that since the School Board wanted the best, Despenza was hired, and he should be given the necessary resources to get his job done.

"He consults and advises school boards across the country and has identified our needs. I am confident his plan deserves support. It is a solid plan. I want the School Board to move forward in this area," said Sloan.

She said this is the school system's weak area, and she did not want to repeat another year of continuous problems when they can be avoided by following Dispenza's plan.

Currently, there are about 350 drivers for the school system. According to the February 2008 risk management bus accidents report, the latest on record, there were five accidents in January 2008 and one in February. There were no injuries involved, and the accident in February was the only one involving a substitute bus driver.

Management positions require personnel to work as many hours as necessary to get the job done, and no overtime is paid. Therefore, the managers could possibly be called on emergencies after hours, and the School Board would not need to compensate them further, said Sloan.

Despenza also explained new technology available such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that would record pretrip checks that drivers are required to make instead of the paper checklist now used. Technology can also track the routes bus travel. He also reiterated the benefits of having administrators in the field supervising and conducting spot checks on equipment.

The school board had also conducted a best practices study that involved visiting other districts and examining their transportation operations. In an 11-2 vote, the matter passed and now will be considered by the full board.