No more cold kids

Feb. 27, 2007

By SHARON G. McBRIDE

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Students no longer have to worry about freezing their toes, hands or any other parts when they make the commute back and forth to school in the Valley.

The complaint of cold buses and not enough buses for activities was addressed again at Wednesday's Mat-Su Borough School District's regular school board meeting.

Kevin Priestley, representing the Student Advisory Board, was on hand at the meeting and lauded board members for taking action and looking into complaints about the student transportation situation.

At the last school board meeting, held Feb. 7, Katie Wieliczkiewicz, a member of the student government and high school band, expressed concern for the second time regarding the student transportation contract.

&#8220The worst trip that I went on was from Wasilla to Valdez,” Wieliczkiewicz said. &#8220We were going to an Alaska Association of Student Government meeting, and in order to keep warm I had to get into my sleeping bag and lay on the floor.”

Officials at the Mat-Su School District said that, after Wieliczkiewicz came forward and expressed her concerns, they immediately went into action.

&#8220We did investigate (Wieliczkiewicz's) complaints about the cold buses,” said Scott Schwald, Mat-Su School District director of pupil transportation. &#8220And we did find that a few of our buses did have a ‘switch' that had broken on them. We immediately changed them out, so that problem will not exist again.

&#8220I would say that 95 percent of our buses are comfortable. In regards to the other 5 percent, we have taken steps to fix them.”

In addition to fixing the cold buses, the school board is actively looking into acquiring an additional contract for activity transportation.

&#8220The student government wholeheartedly approves of the board's action of looking into additional transportation options,” Priestly said Wednesday. School Board President Larry DeVilbiss assured Priestley that they were indeed listening to students' concerns with the buses.

&#8220We are in the process of addressing all these concerns,” DeVilbiss said.

For example, at the last school board meeting, chief administrator Robert Doyle provided the school board with a report that outlined pricing options with different scenarios for student transportation.

The school board unanimously voted to go with an option that would allow the school district to enter into an additional contract for activity transportation. The new contract would be for approximately 25 buses and drivers, and would ensure that all activities would be covered.

In the meantime, the district said it is keeping close tabs on the buses that handle student transportation.

&#8220I would just like to say that we listen to all complaints from our parents and students, no matter how big or small,” Schwald said. &#8220We are more than willing to look into incidents. And we found that, in a few particular cases, that indeed buses that were transporting students to activities were cold. But we took steps to fix that. If I can squeeze more heat out of that engine, then I will do that.”

Schwald explained that the buses have additional heaters installed, and have had them since the start of the school year, but now the district is encouraging Laidlaw - the company that holds the student transportation contract - to buy additional equipment that will increase the average interior bus temperature of 45 degrees.

&#8220That's where we are right now,” Schwald said.