ORANGE : Trustees to Review Buses’ Routes, Stops

Trustees of the Orange Unified School District, who have received a 40-page report lambasting their transportation system, have decided that unsafe bus stops are the most urgent of deficiencies to be corrected.

They plan to review all bus routes and stops for safety at their board meeting Thursday.

The report, which trustees called “alarming” and “powerful,” found problems with nearly every aspect of the 61-fleet bus operation. At a special work session last week, trustees seemed overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems, which ranged from dangerously old buses to a management structure lacking critical supervisory positions.

“This district’s bus operation is one of the largest in the county,” said Virginia Barnes, the consultant who wrote the report. “It’s not something where you do a two-hour review and make some changes.”

Barnes said she had compiled a similar study in 1989 that was never reviewed by trustees. Problems with the Transportation Department, which has an annual budget of $3.2 million, have been ignored for at least 10 years, she said.

One segment of the study immediately caught the eyes of trustees: “Many of the current routes have student bus stops located in areas where it is unsafe or illegal or both for buses to stop.” The district has failed to follow a state law requiring the trustees or superintendent to annually approve bus stops, the report continued.

Streets are widened or given faster speed limits so that stops once safe are now dangerous, Barnes explained. She suggested that changes be made “in a very short time period.”

Drivers are concerned as well, Barnes added. “They do get (pupils) to school safely, and with some of the equipment they have to do it with, that’s miraculous,” she said. “We’re talking about 35-year-old buses.”