Magazine says Monroe-Woodbury has one great fleet of school buses

Central Valley - The Monroe-Woodbury School District’s bus fleet is one of the 10 best in the United States and Canada, according to School Bus Fleet magazine. The article on the M-W Transportation Department, “Exceeding Expectations is EXPECTED in this Yard,” notes how the area has grown, adding 180 to 200 students every year who need to be transported by bus. It also reports that the fleet has nearly tripled in size since the mid-1970s. It currently transports about 8,100 students with 150 buses; that includes providing transportations to special needs schools in five states. The department has about 200 employees and a budget of about $6 million (or about 5 percent of all district spending). That breaks down to about $750 per student, or about the average cost in the state, according to Cliff Berchtold, Monroe-Woodbury’s transportation director. The magazine interviewed Berchtold. “Our schools keep growing; busing keeps growing. Our challenge has been to keep up with busing,” he said. That’s a big challenge, especially when local voters keep defeating measures that would provide funding for new buses. “We’re scratching our heads through the spring and summer trying to figure out how to get things done without buying new buses,” Berchtold said. The article notes that the district is planning to operate an electric bus that was found in a weed-choked lot in Brooklyn. The New York Power Authority agreed to provide a new battery pack if it could find a home for the bus, which had been abandoned by a contractor. When the bus-charging circuit is installed in the M-W bus garage, the electric bus will replace one fueled by diesel. But in addition to diesel, tires and the other hardware and maintenance that go into running a fleet of 150 vehicles, what draws attention to Monroe-Woodbury are people and service, according to the article. “I want (parents) to feel like their expectation of safe bus service is being exceeded,” Berchtold says. “We want to provide the extra touches, such as calling a parent if there’s a problem.” The transportation director also said that students in the district behave well enough on the buses “that video surveillance hasn’t been necessary. The approach that the drivers take is to focus on motivation; teaching the rules of safe riding isn’t enough.” And that reputation for well-behaved passengers, Berchtold said, makes it easier to recruit new bus drivers. School Bus Fleet Managing Editor Thomas McMahon said his magazine solicits nominations from industry leaders across the nation for the “Great Fleet” series. “We received the nomination for Monroe-Woodbury from Jim Ellis, director of research and instructional design at the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute in Syracuse,” he said. Berchtold said the recognition “was a total surprise (a pleasant one for a change).” A survey of the buses operated by the district can be found on page 7.