001foreign that cash balance report as of November 29 2022 count balance on November 15th 2022 was 6 35 5 37 18. we add deposits from November 16 to the 29th 4 million 455 a 12.54 less payroll on November 23rd of 9 54 875 spot 82 and warrant number 18 on November 22nd of 687 162.69 leaves us with a book balance on November 29 2022 of 3 million 449 311 21 the corresponding bank balance on the same day of 2 million 606 443.17 uh we add mmdt a balance on November 15th of 8 million 846 359 12. interest for October and November of 53 793 spot 24 um and a balance of 8 million 900 150 in a total operating cash balance uh of 12 million 349 463 spot 57. you know in terms of motion
002no threatening Transportation leaders here with us today uh at your request and uh I'd ask Tim if he wants to introduce the people that are with him today and um so that everybody knows all the people you brought with you they're all they're all people that we've worked with over the years some for one person for 30 years or more and uh and have always had a good relationship with them so thanks for being here tonight appreciate it I appreciate it superintendent Lavoy and my name is Tim Sheehan I'm the senior vice president of operations for nrt bus across all of New England with me I have Pete Delaney client relations behind me I have Lisa alturicio who is the vice vice president responsible for the school district and beside her is Christine Valcourt who's
003been a a member of nrt for 30 years and has been responsible for this contract in the past and is primarily a technology person within our organization now thank you and thank you for having us they can explain some of the concerns that we have of as far as with the uh with the busing so that they can be addressed I'm sorry if you don't mind foreign thanks for coming um so just to recap I know we've been um kind of in Communications regularly however we still have a number of buses that are showing up in especially in the afternoons late and what what has improved is that you know we do have information that we can push out to families in terms of you know bus number 12 or whatever it is that's late
004however the the number of buses that are still late and as we move into the winter and move into the colder weather it is still a significant concern that I hear from parents and students on a regular basis I know before um when you came to speak to the committee there was kind of a plan in place and I know that there were several drivers that were in the process of being trained and I also know that there was some challenges in terms of onboarding permanent drivers to Greater Lawrence Tech but I think that the committee had kind of asked the superintendent and I for the current status in terms of where we're at with 100 percent busing for our students for especially for the ride home that please I appreciate the the question and
005you know I'd love to be able to sit here and tell you that I've got a a plan for 100 Staffing for the drivers and the reality is is that we're not we're not there and we do have drivers in the pipeline coming uh to the Merrimack Valley however this is a nationwide shortage and we are doing everything we can to get the drivers that we can that we can um specific to this District we raised our driver rates 30 this year we went from 20 to 26 dollars an hour we offered 401K improvements with a company match of six percent we offered overtime that starts now this year and we offered floating holidays and I would tell you despite all of those actions we are still struggling to pull people into work and that's
006not just specific to here it's across it's across the country Frank you said you didn't I'm prepared to answer all the questions but you doubled your statement that's what I'm saying I am right because I think we'll lead into more okay Frank Mrs Fitzgerald Hi Marilyn Fitzgerald I represent the town of Andover and I have made a little bit of noise about this I feel that we are low man on the totem pole I know all of the you're pretty much the only show in town across our entire Merrimack Valley the region other than Whittier that has their own buses and drivers and methuen's problems were solved anova's problems were solved I saw the wonderful piece on end of moms today with your electric buses being shown off to them and everything so I asked
007the question the last time how did they get their problem solved and the answer was that it's a pecking order so to speak that your long-term drivers get to pick their roots and they didn't pick us which of course makes us feel really terrific and I just feel that as a company and we've been with you forever when it was strongly breasts and then you took over and there was a point where we were your biggest account because every child that comes to school here is bus they don't um you know from for the forescending communities so I I just don't understand it on a a almost a moral issue how you can let us be the ones that get the tail end and I I just am beyond frustrated with it so if you
008could answer me other than it's a pecking water and I understand why seniority rules that's the way it is I don't think that tells the whole story though either in fact we're not even to have a full complement of drivers in the city of Andover so today we we Outsource with a third-party provider in Andover who provide four buses for us to complete our full driver compliment in the city of Andover we have tried we've tried with that specific company for greater Lawrence Tech and in fact superintendent Lavoy and I also took a meeting with another party out of another company out of Lawrence to try to Source drivers for greater Lawrence and we were we would we told them in that meeting that we would put them into place the next day and we
009never heard back from the owner of the company so just just to just to elaborate on that Lawrence is not out of full complement of drivers methuen's not at a full complement of drivers according to the scope of the contract are we moving kids around yes we are but we also double tripping over there um and we are using different vehicles to solve problems within those two districts there is not a district in the Merrimack Valley that we are at a full complement correctly if I'm wrong that we are at a full complement of drivers in any of the school districts surrounding you if I could add one thing um we heard that um when they're through say with the root of Methuen or Andover whatever that then they can have overtime by then taking
010our route even though it's coming late for the kids so isn't that in itself reason for them to not be on time because they're getting paid more and I'm happy for whatever they make but it's just it's we're in November excuse me we're in December and it really isn't any better yeah the short answer is drivers don't get overtime until after 40 hours and so they're not receiving anything in terms of additional hours they get hours worked for anything they do in and above their normally scheduled route until they hit 40 hours and then they would get overtime and um and so it becomes a driver's decision on whether or not they want to work and quite honestly our Workforce that I inherited I've been with the organization a quick 18 months is an aged
011Workforce that quite honestly took us as a retirement position and you know they're very happy with their four hours and I can't force them because if I then force them I exacerbate my issue with it just say you know what I'm done and it's it's a very delicate balance as we work through this and and quite honestly after covid we did not see the workforce come back like we expected it to we work very closely with the State Department of Labor within the state governor's office on a weekly basis we're down on down in Boston looking for Solutions and strategizing with the governor's office on how we can try to solve this problem you know a report came out three weeks ago that across the United States right now there's seven million males between the
012ages of 21 and 60 years old that are not coming back to the work and and that's just staggering in and of itself and you know despite the fact of us raising rates to be what I would say competitive and as I came into this Market I found as I came into this role I found that that this organization was lagging in terms of our position in the market from an employer of choice from a driver's salary perspective and the changes that I've made this year to try to correct that despite those changes people still people still aren't coming back to work and so I would like to say that I I do have people in the pipeline we do have people in the pipeline but can I promise you that I'm going to have
013your your problem solved here at Great Lawrence Tech in the foreseeable future I can't because coupled with that I bring three drivers on here in Greater Lawrence Tech over the last month and a half and I lost two so I brought on three lost two of net one and flu and covet is still impacting our operations and I'm sure as it is your schools and um and so we're dealing with that that book off or call out sick I think we had 21 call-offs in Methuen yesterday Drake at office 21-21 College the drivers having flu or coven so it's it's rampant and it's rampant in our in our organization and it's just it's a challenge every day is a challenge thank you and thank you for your explanation I mean the last time you guys
014came before was you and you opened up this beautiful facility in Lawrence um I know I was there with the governor and everybody else um and you just got how many electric buses in Lawrence 24 to four so we got we got a 10 million dollar grant for 25 electric vehicles right with 25 from Lawrence and four in Andover no so the ones in the Andover are a test that we purchased okay um but you still don't have drivers last time your representative was here I'm sorry I'm not seeing the correlation between them not I'm getting there okay all right okay and trust me I've just had this argument wanted to say Representatives um you have this beautiful facility you're going to get drivers to um be trained that doesn't speak English you had a
015partnership with Greg Lawrence Community Action Council um which after talking Saddam is never no mrus ever been signed and nobody's been there I believe the superintendent has reached out to you if you have such people that we could provide such Services here um and that's what we're looking to do to resolve our issue because I have kids here still here since the beginning of school year and I have their parents complaining about the delay and if I was a kid still here two hours after school why would I want to come to school I mean a lot of our kids have to go home to to deal with their their to take care of their siblings do their homework go to work and they're still here um so how can we help you resolve and
016and let me go back to the you said my understanding the buses from the drivers for Andover North Andover are getting 30 an hour I mean not Andover methuania and Lawrence Haverhill gets 30 an hour where's Lawrence at right now 29 29 yep and how much 26 26. they were 20 last year 20 last year um so what can we do to to help you exercise get this result because point fingers all we want we could say that it's your fault we could say that you have no drivers but at the end of the day we still have kids here and on top of that we're paying for staff to be here with the kids we're paying for food for the kids to be here because you can't just have them here without being fed
017or have somebody watching them so we're losing out more money than we should be so what is it that we can do to make sure that we're helping resolve this issue that's a great question sure Pete sure um oh it's the next button over this way sorry about that sorry as Tim mentioned my name is Pete Delaney and I'm the director of customer relations I came on board about a year and a half ago um uh with with nrt and Trombley and prior to that I was in education I was a high school principal and a community in close proximity so I can certainly appreciate your frustration and the concerns and the issues that you raise relative to when the students are late you know after school the the impact that that has on the
018district as far as Staffing and financial and as well as the parents so specific to what are some of the things that you know we're doing and that we can do collaboratively to help each other resolve the issue um you know one of the things as part of that Lawrence recruiting center that we open we've also just onboarded a new ESL instructor so we're going to begin those classes after the new year and what we're looking to do is set up a essentially a trimester model through the year so like a spring semester course ESL courses for our driver candidates a summer course and then a uh and then a fall course in addition and I'm not saying that this is a cure all but we've also purchased a number of like Rosetta Stone accounts
019to be able to help um the with the drivers as they transition through certainly I know we're talking to Lisa uhuricio on our way over here today looking at you know making sure we're getting over some of the brochures and the advertising we can certainly have our area recruiter touch base with your HR Director to make sure that we're having like a monthly check-in to see where are the places that we that you know that we should be recruiting and advertising I know that we did something at the festival of the lights and the recruiting so we're looking at conventional mean means of the things like indeed in Facebook but we're also looking at unconventional processes some of the things in my capacity I go around the the state and meet with different school districts
020and really my role is to help our company understand how schools work and the challenges that they're faced with and conversely help schools understand you know what we're doing to try to facilitate these so um and not to put the onus back to you folks because I don't mean it in this context but certainly in light of your question you know if there are for instance um uh like paraprofessionals that you have working in the building who are part-time employees who we could pair up those jobs to maybe make them more palatable on both ends right where maybe they want to be a CDL driver in the morning come be a paraprofessional in the building during the day and then be a CDL driver Drive the kids home and at night we uh you know
021we would offer the training and the opportunities for those same thing with say your coaches or any individuals that you um that you think are groups that you think we should reach out to whether it's Church groups or adult groups we will certainly Embrace those opportunities and we opened in a probably not probably certainly it's not been quick enough for anybody ourselves included but we did a lot there was a lot of learning last year as we everybody came out of covet and I know I can speak to this um from my experience my time as a principal pre-covered I was gen typically working with a substitute teacher pool of anywhere between 28 to 33 teachers that we could call on any given day and it was the same demographic that we're drawing from for
022bus drivers after coven we were down to three substitute teachers and none of none of our other substitute teachers decided to come back it was part of the Great resignation and we faced the same thing with our paraprofessional staff and our tutors and our aides and so I know that the driver shortage only combines compounds the labor shortages that that schools are you know also dealing with so any any ways that we can definitely look to partner with you and make sure that we're doing a regular check-in you know with our HR Talent acquisition people and your HR people we welcome that we open the Lawrence Center in large part because while we have the same labor shortage issues last year we did have a pocket in the Metro Boston area on our Lin office
023that was particularly had a surplus of drivers coming through that wasn't being we weren't seeing those same results in other in other regions and demographically the demographics in Lynn matched up with some of our other Urban centers but we weren't seeing the same type of results in our recruiting efforts there and the only thing that we could really identify anecdotally was that the proximity of our Lin office to people being able to walk to the office made it a hub so we specifically opened the recruiting center in downtown Lawrence in Essex hoping to capture that same type of that same type of foot traffic and ideally we would have been able to get that open earlier you know when the school to capture drivers to get ready for the school year but we have opened
024it we have two full-time Personnel over there uh both of whom are bilingual we have a receptionist that we're bringing on board who's bilingual we've just um like I said um contracted with an ESL teacher instructor who's going to be doing that modeling so it won't answer it won't provide a solution for tomorrow or even for January but it's Our intention that we're not having this same dialogue with you folks and with school districts a year from now and so that as we we and we know the other thing that Tim and I have worked extensively with the with the VPS on is really understanding this the school year calendar and cycle and aligning our business to match up with that so for instance we know that we really need to be aggressively addressing um
025the driver recruitment is a year-long process because unfortunately as Tim mentioned we onboarded three we lost two for greater Lawrence specifically it's a net one we know that the process from the the moment we get a candidate in the door who is now a candidate we know that there's a fairly High failure rate of people making it from point A to point Z Z being light full licensure and so you know we're looking to try to address why are we losing candidates or you know in in those um you know in that part as well and um we've even taken a step and again not to this doesn't speak directly to you folks but it impacts all of us in uh in October uh I was down in Washington DC along with our chief commercial
026officer and our chief safety officer we met with um Robin Hutchinson who was the newly appointed director of the Department of Transportation in the morning and then later on that afternoon we met with Congressman Hood staff who is the co-chair of the national bus caucus and even things there where we were attract really asking them is for help in um at the federal level giving guidance to the states for reforms in CDL licensure and I'll just give you one really quick example of a hindrance for people getting their CDL license there is a there is an under the hood requirement for somebody to get their their CDL bus driver's license that requires that they have a certain degree of proficiency identifying and understanding how the engine and everything works it's really an intrastate Trucking requirement
027for truckers but it has carried over into the CDL licensure and our drivers who have a you know we have our our garage and our office five miles away it's not a requirement it's not something that they would need but it's a licensure requirement and we know that that's a particularly sticking point for people passing you know passing the test so we're asking for them to look at changing that we're asking them to take a look at changing the lifetime look back lifetime look back for licensure meaning if we have a driver coming from another state who have a country as well who had a CDL license they have to go all the way back into their history and it becomes time prohibitive the other thing we did last year in our lobbying efforts in
028the state this is for 7D for special transportation services but most of our CDL Drivers come through the 7D ranks and it's hard to believe that in 2021 2022 that this wasn't the case but it wasn't last year um the 70 licensure was only offered in English and so we we worked with the Department of Department of Ira with the governor's office with the registry of motor vehicle to get those tests offered in Spanish and the and the difference is is that CDLs regulated by the federal government 70s regulated by the state we had we were able to change the regulations within the state we're working on the Federal Regulations now exactly so now people are able to come in and test in Spanish at the state level and that was that was driven by
029nrt Trombley so we've got a lot of things going on and that's why I don't want to commit and over commit and under deliver but you know we are outside of the country too we are working with agencies in Puerto Rico right now to bring people over from Puerto Rico and Mexico to come drive in the U.S our rates for for salary are in some cases double and we're looking at seasonality jobs to bring people in from other countries but we still have this this legislation that we're trying to solve for which is you know what do I do with a fluent Spanish-speaking person and how do I get them to pass the test in order to be able to fill the need that we have within the system and it's not just us I
030sit on the executive board for stem school bus transportation Association for Massachusetts and this issue goes across all of us we're all lobbying to the same audience I think I think our biggest opportunity is to tap into the pools that we don't tap into today which is you know um uh people from other countries or uh communities within our our districts in which we serve that necessarily is English as a second language our English doesn't exist in their in their um in their portfolio today so to speak so in for instance in in Framingham we're looking at Portuguese because it's a primarily Portuguese driven neighborhood so that's a long way to answer your question I would tell you that to your point the Lawrence uh Recruiting Center opened up great opening and then it kind
031of petered off because the amount of candidates that came in that needed English as a second language training and then we couldn't find a teacher to train and if we oversaw something here with greater Lawrence Tech because I think you indicated that we did have somebody here then that's on me I'm not I'm I didn't take that information as you know superintendental Lavoy but I'll follow up on that and find out why so hold on a second um and you're right one is location because downtown Lawrence is the worst location to have especially for foot terrific I know where the office is because it's a block down where at from where I work I'm also the former ESO specialist for the City of Lawrence and I still trained a current facilitator for the esos mayor's
032diesel task force so getting people from even teachers or people into classes is something we can do in to make it easier um and but it all starts with with the actual conversation with the correct um people um and I could definitely take your name down and have you guys before the next ESO task force meeting that way we could try to do some partnership that we absolutely be successful but with that even if they've taken English you're you're they have to get take the exam then they have to go through the training which is my understanding and from talking to plenty of bus drivers is two to three months um training so it's not an easy step so you could have three people that pass or they still need to be trained so there's
033some truth to that okay and and I would tell you so again I'm just going to say it I've been here for 18 months I've changed a lot in in 18 months in the organization and and I I'm not from this industry um but we have what we've found is is that historically the Legacy mindset was is that the drivers in this company trained new drivers which became a very challenging task as we observed it within my first nine months ten months meaning that they require 40 hours of check me here 40 hours of classroom and then 20 on Road 60 hours total I think it's 40 20. right yeah okay and so If a driver if we're asking a driver to train another driver really what what we leave is only four hours between
034the to and from to school and from school in the PM that we can train these drivers so that means if I'm looking to become a school bus driver and I need all this training you're only telling me I can get 20 hours a week it's going to take me a long time to do that so I've just outsourced that so we are working with a company in Everett right now that we run shuttles out of the Merrimack Valley down to Everett that people are going drivers new candidates are going down there full-time 40 hours a week and then go immediately for testing and once they test they come to us and we're training them for school bus so they're going to get all the way through this CDL now they'll possess their CDL and
035then they just need a certificate for school bus so they're do we've outsourced all that CDL training to get it done as quickly as possible they come back to us we give them school bus training because that company's not equipped to do it and then our expectations we're going to be able to move candidates to the system we've got 12 people coming out this week as a matter of fact so 12 drives for the for the valley for the valley the valley is my biggest challenge in the entire state right just so you know sorry and I and I tend to agree with you um because I just don't sit here I also sit on the government's Attila advisory commission so I'm aware of all the different um challenges there is right now but in
036the rest of the state is great but my concern sure is here um and when we're looking at late attend late buses coming in since the beginning of school year since the beginning of school year I mean at one point is when I reached out to the superintendent and say we need a bus company there because one we have to explain to our parents why the kids are still here two we have to have staff and everything else we're acquiring bigger causes than we should be um but with no resolve right no and no and nothing from the bus company so that's why I asked once again for you guys to be here because we have to figure something out that is going to be mutually beneficial for us as well um but as well
037as what we can do to help thank you Mr Mr zolinski yeah I appreciate it and it's really good to hear the context and I would love some support and assistance in order to formulate more of a broad parent communication because I think we try to communicate but I wouldn't be able to communicate fully what you just communicated to our families right now again the families have specific it's like they want to know about their child but I think knowing that um it is not just a greater Lawrence problem and really the long term would be helpful um and I guess we could talk about this offline but one of the things I keep talking to Mr Vogel about that deals with you is also we have over 300 athletes in most seasons that don't
038take buses home at 2 30. and so we also have a lot of kids that stay after school on Tuesday and Thursdays now that's not a guarantee but many of the buses that are leaving here also parents have just said forget it I'm picking up but many of the buses are leaving here that are leaving almost like they're not that full capacity because of that so with the technology that you all have available could we like and we don't have to do it now but can we obviously we need long-term Solutions with you know busing and Staffing but for the remainder of this year could we try to think outside the box in terms of our afternoon routes and in terms of even aligning because I think sometimes and I know it's done out of
039best intentions but sometimes you know a bus will show up but only one kid gets on it because of that so I'm sure that's frustrating but can we like there's all kinds of like I know you have the magical root sorters but can we look to offer more of a like a solution that will support our students in particular we know like you all know the bus the targeted bus and the problem bus areas can we try to combine those in a more official streamlined way yep and I think the short answer is yes you know one of the things that we've instituted over the last few months is specifically around Sports Chatters is why is a 77 bus the right size for a you know golf team that may have only six kids on
040it so we recognize that as well again I I think some of it is Legacy thinking it's school bus charter therefore it needs a school bus um but we do when we when we get a chatter called into the office we should be asking and I'll check that but we should be asking how many students are on the bus so that we can send an appropriate size bus to solve the problem which may allow for more flexibility is what I think I hear you saying I think just to clarify what I'm talking about is our 230 Roots the 29 of them if we if if those roots are designed based on 1700 students but there's three or 400 students that are staying after okay for sports or activities um can we kind of look at
041ways to see if there's certain I know you do combine certain routes and there's second drivers but many of those buses like the kids that have to wait it's not a full bus right because of the the kids um and so you know we'd have to think about that like so say for example if there was a half day like the day before a holiday where everyone goes home that's different but for the most part on a daily basis um the afternoon routes are not as dense as the morning routes okay so I and again I don't want to take the team the committee's time but I think hearing about the longer term Solutions in onboarding and recruiting and partnering to find out supports is one thing but for our for our daily needs for
042our students I would love to partner or find out if there's some some flexibility and as you say so like I and I love what you said in terms about like we need to understand more about how bus companies work like you're trying to understand how schools work so it'd be great if like we could partner so you can kind of see how our school works and how our Roots work um like and and maybe we can try to say well these two can we can switch it up a little bit to make it better for kids sure absolutely and we can schedule that time so you asked if any of us had any suggestions on where to find drivers I don't know if there is an age limit I'm not offering myself to go
043get the training no one would want that um but is there an age limit I'm thinking every single City in town in Massachusetts has their own Senior Center and is that a place where you have looked they are only looking for part-time work the last thing they want to do is work 40 hours a week so I don't know if that's something you've even thought about or if you can't do it because there is an age limit on when you could be a school bus driver sure and and I'd say this we typically do work with districts and towns on um with their hiring administrators which would include sourcing retirees within that Community But to answer your question about the age limit I don't think there is other than they have to be able to
044pass a physical exam and so anything like sleep apnea diabetes would exclude you from being able to be a CDL license driver other than that I would tell you that I already our Workforce is probably north of 45 70 of our people thank you Vivian so I have a few questions you mentioned that you have drivers in the pipeline the last time we had a meeting and your representative came before us it came across as uh some of the drivers that were already in the pipeline were coming to us so I'm not sure how accurate that information is or was but when you do have candidates that are in the process what is the guarantee if any that a driver is designated to Greater Lawrence Tech so I'll allow you to answer that before I
045move on to my next question that's a great question so ideally the ideal case is that we're geo-locating the person closest to the closest base for that allows for them to get to and from Quick work as as easily as possible we did when we first opened the Lawrence recruiting center push people and we got immediate pushback saying I'm not going to take these jobs if I've got to drive to here or there so so the ideal scenario for us is is that we're hiring people within the communities in which we serve which is also geolocated next to a facility so in this case we're servicing out at Drake and Methuen that that's where they're geographically live so that way they can get their bus and come come out on their routes when you put
046out a posting that you're searching for drivers I know there's some job postings where ill specifically state that they're looking for Lawrence Methuen Worcester do you do do you have that in place or is that something that you could look into that way we are specifically getting candidates that are aware that this is the area that you guys are in need of instead of obtaining candidates that are because obviously they're replying they don't know um you know if they're coming from another town but yet there's a desperate need for GR you know the Merrimack Valley I feel like that's something you could potentially look into so I'll tell you Pride prior to my arrival what they used to do is they would put out these broadcastings across the state so you would get people applying
047for jobs into the organization that may live in Milford Mass right who would never come to Lawrence to drive about two months ago two months ago three months ago we changed it to specific contract and what I've what I've learned in my tenure with the organization is that bus driving is a community-based job we need to be hiring from the community in which we serve because it's generally a part-time job for people who are in retirement who don't want to be inconvenienced by having to go to work but are willing to work provided that the work is is there for them so we have totally changed our recruitment strategy when a posting goes up it's specific for this District right now so when you go online you would see postings for great alarms my second
048question is in regards to a comment that you made you said that this was a global issue which I could understand but now that I'm curious um to know in more detail as to what other schools in our neighboring communities that are also affected just as badly as we are in terms of you know if correct me if I'm wrong we're talking about two hours behind so what other schools in our neighboring towns are also affected so it's a good question I just want to make sure that I'm clear too my understanding is that the a we fix the AMS we still have a PM issue and the PM issue is on average somewhere around 3 15 for the last bus getting out of here is that correct that's that's what our data is telling
049us um which may be a call out for being sick so I don't think that we're two hours anymore I think we started off the year arguably maybe longer than that yep and and with driver shortages but I think we've corrected a lot of the problems but I do still think we have a few buses on the PN side that are uh constant habitual issues let's call them habitual issues that we're working to rectify but I don't think it's that we're at two hours right now um and then I you know I when Mrs Fitzgerald Ms Fitzgerald spoke earlier so you know Andover is short Lawrence is short Methuen short Drake is short um Lawrence Lowell um I'm sorry Haverhill yeah they're all short it's right in there yep um the boxer talks to Middleton
050Newbury we have shortages I'm sorry we have shortages in all those locations as well as well as down in Metro West so I would say to you that holistically we're about 15 of our driver work for what's short across all the business and I would say that's just in line with the national standards what we're seeing right now uh but each one of those districts varies about you know what the driver shortages within the district and one of the primary drivers that we're trying to correct for is that the districts the hourly rates for the drivers are typically tied to the contract and so you get a a contract renewal that just took place in Haverhill which we went up 50 on our driver pay so Haverhill is now at 31 an hour 31 an
051hour I think and so it drastically changes the market right and then we have we we bid The Roots out in um in our local facilities and so the drivers are smarter than we are when when the when the rates change they move so we are trying to um go to terminal based salary structures for the drivers hourly structures for the drivers I approached the board of directors this year and asked for nine million dollars to create what I call not only an internal wage disparity between contract to contract within a terminal but even between terminals so you know the geographical location between Methuen and Drake and it's only five minutes down the road right so internally within Methuen I will have wage disparity within Drake and I have wage disparity and then between Drake
052at Methuen there's wage disparity and then that's not even including the external forces between you know other bus providers that it may be offering other or greater wages right so I asked the voter directors for nine million dollars to try to correct some of that uh I was approved for seven and a half million hence the reason why I was able to move on great Lawrence Tech drives to the tuna six six dollars that's a huge increase for uh for um for a 20 hour 20 an hour job but it's I'm not where I want to be I am not the employer of choice yet and um and I'm still working to get there my last question is in regards to the contract that we have in place with you guys whether it was negotiated
053or whether it was an RFP that we accepted and agreed on um if this is an issue that's going to continue let's just say you know worst case scenario till the end of the school year are we going to have any adjustments as to what you guys are being compensated for it's a great question so today we we made the adjustments on the front end to reduce all our billing for buses that are not running and any bus that runs late we credit for immediately right out of the gate it was in my eyes it was the right thing to do as opposed to what's happened in the past where the you know that the what do you call it 2010 billion or what's it called 110 billing and how the structure used to be
054in place where it was a flat rate for the 10 months um I found myself last year being new in my role going and explaining why you're charging me for buses aren't running so this year we were proactive uh any bus that's not running we credit immediately 100 of the cost any bus that's delayed we take I think it's like 27 28 off the top which is um um our our cost for internal minus the operating expense yes ma'am I would just I would just ask this uh superintendent Lavoy just check me on the bill I want to make sure that I'm not that is the Mandate that is I'm sure somebody's going to check me yeah our first credit was six thousand twenty three dollars something like that for the first month um I
055agree so the comment was it doesn't help us I agree listen the last thing I want to do is be in the busing industry and leave kids standing on the side of the road right and and this is a huge problem I'm trying to solve for and it's not going to happen overnight that's why I don't want to sit here and tell you it's going to be done next week and go out of here and you believe in that and then two weeks I'm back here answering the same question it's going to take systematic change over an extended amount of time to to correct what what's in front of me I don't come from this industry I think a little bit different than how others do and um and so we're influencing some new decisions
056that are being made from the organization to try to make it better but the last thing that I want is kids standing on the side of the road as well can I just ask a quick what um thank you what terminal Services us and why so that's Drake let us Drake it and I think geographically well Trombley was a legacy Trombley coming go ahead drink it because there's been a contract coach since the 1970s is that a legacy thing that could be considered because it is that because we hear that a lot like would there be another terminal that would better serve our you know I think we're within two or three miles in any direction that we go I'm for sure can take a look at it we're looking at all that anyways um
057so today we have for instance Haverhill Big Bus is run out of Haverhill sped is run out of Methuen and so we're looking at yeah we're looking at all that right now and what makes sense how do I get how do we get the assets closer to the districts in which they serve it makes sense for me as a business uh person as well um so we can absolutely take a look at that I I just don't know how far North Reading is from here and or Methuen the one's closer yeah okay um Frank it's thank you Leo he's actually um on off of 28. um before the flea market yeah and say oh yeah I'm at the building all the time I'm there tomorrow morning I just without looking at a map and measuring
058I just wasn't sure which one was closer that would be the close one out in North already yeah um but it's something you said and came from a lot of drivers um was that before they used to have a bonus for not calling out sick throughout the year you guys took that away without even saying anything so now so a lot of them is like well why even if I don't want to go I call them all sick um so I think you just lost a big incentive for a lot of your drivers with taking that away so so my understanding is that's not gone this year that it's still in play no it's not it's not and so what I'm hearing you say is we've got a communication issue without drivers it is definitely
059in play this year what I what they may be missing misinterpreting is is that when I host driver meetings which I do monthly what I get back is is I'm a 10-year driver I've been here for 15 years why am I making the same as this guy who just walked through the door that's the other one right so I'm trying to solve that and I'm talking about changing the structure to a tenured bonus versus a an attendance bonus so that I can reward those drivers that I committed and have been here over time versus the just gross turnover rate we have for drivers within the first 90 days which is roughly around 50 percent yeah it's it's it's uh it's steep from what so I think what somebody might have misinterpreted what they heard and
060we can check back we can communicate with the drivers just to clear it up but this year the attendance bonus is in place but we are looking to restructure driver bonuses and again to incentivize people to come to work and build in barriers not barriers I shouldn't say that's probably like a gay process zero to three gets x three to seven gets X and so on and so forth yeah for longevity yep uh I have uh just a one request uh probably mostly from the to the principal our am runs in our 230 runs could you get this committee a number of each bus and the bodies on each bus in the morning then the body is on the buses at 2 30. yeah okay anything further it just isn't a side yes sir I
061think we have the student list loaded into the system as well so we may be able to get that for the school committee as well uh and what we would need though to look at the analysis for the afternoon is what child what children will leave at 2 30 and what won't and then they got to kind of stick to it if we change it but we can work with that offline curiosity with that like I'm just trying to like it doesn't sound like here tonight we're gonna solve the long-term Global issue but I'd like to at least do like a scenario sure sure and I think we can have a breakout session Frank did you uh no I mean just the number is not the names of any students Vivian numbers would change though
062based on season since okay so then every season so I'll say like on on average like I can confirm with the athletic director but our spring our fall number of athletes is very similar to the winter it's pretty consistent it's just like the when you get down to the student level like I would say we have a lot of three sport athletes though so I think at least looking at it would be worth it and we're taking into consideration like the club's um and I don't know if I would do clubs only because clubs are Tuesday and Thursday only okay but we could at least run the numbers okay oh yeah oh there it goes all right it was flashing green on me um I would agree with that and I think when you when
063you get to that point we're talking about just of having available seats what I'm hearing you say versus name specific okay anything for the ladies and gentlemen I want to thank you ladies and gentlemen for uh taking their time this evening thank you for coming okay I appreciate that sir thank you and superintendent Lloyd thank you nice to see you again thank you see you thanks for being here okay back to the back to the regular order of business uh John admission report is in the packet any questions or comments on that anything on it no just uh just those are just the numbers where we're at with the admissions to this point okay as you can see it continues to grow quickly okay superintendent Lavoy will update this committee on the following uh new
064programs or proposed programs Aviation uh programming and child care so all three we haven't heard back we expect to hear from the Department of Ed between within the next week or two at the most uh on the final decision moving forward with those three particular programs uh in terms of child care space is moving along fine we're hoping to open up to Child Care Program in January sometime we've got they're working on the ceilings now putting in the ceilings then we'll put the floor in and up than the Cabinetry so we're hoping to put all the Cabinetry in during Christmas Vacation put the counter in and we're ready to open of course it then has to be inspected by the state so we do have a little bit of work there but that program uh
065is well on its uh way we feel confident that that's going to get approval because that's in the Northeast blueprint as a need and then the programming again uh is another program that's in the north east blueprint as a need so we feel good about that still the one that's up in the air is Aviation so we're not sure yet on the final approval of Aviation we'll know in the next couple of weeks final visual for that Mrs Michelle yes on the child care um if we were to open up in January have we already hired the teachers I know we have the director do we have the teachers we do have the teachers hired and I just are they already on board are they to start during board they're starting uh just before the
066holidays to prepare and plan and organize curriculum and that kind of thing alsoila just to follow up on um Miss Fitzgerald questioned we had the director really high and the teachers like I mean like you said so but we don't have that the child care center yet so what what job are those people doing right now so they're not they're not working yet no the uh the director has been working on putting together all the uh documentation for approval by the state to just finish the uh handbook for uh parents and uh of the those who want their child to come here it's working on the handbook for uh the staff themselves regulations and rules working with uh vendors in terms of ordering uh all the equipment that they need for the child care space
067for playground working with organizing the time frame for all of that so she's here every day in her office preparing for our opening there's a lot to it she could show me a list the other day of about 30 different things that we have to be that have to be approved to get final approval for opening so she's making sure that we have everything in place in order to get approval the child care teachers themselves haven't started yet they'll start just before the holidays preparing they their curriculum and getting ready for opening and then as a Cabinet once the cabinets are in place they'll start organizing and putting things together so that when we open everything's in ready to go in place so we can we really would like to see opening for somewhere around
068the middle of January uh it's really going to be a matter of how quickly we can get the state in to give us final approvals on as far as a child care so this year it's a service program next year will be a early childhood education program once we get final approval from the Department of Ed I feel confident about that one and that one really fits perfectly with with programs at the state is encouraging us to open as well as programming and we'll see on the aviation I feel good about the aviation program as well we got a lot riding on that program state knows we have a lot riding on that program so I I do feel good about that uh so I think all three I would feel uh I feel like
069we're going to be in good shape for that which will allow us uh some other good benefits if we get the aviation program approved enjoy continue where is that director falling under which what is stop a person a union person the director no she's not she's non-rex she's just a contract yeah uh Mrs for Joe just one more thing on the child care how did we know how many teachers to hire not knowing how many students we would have we we've done we have uh we right now have more than enough to fill the space from people who have already reached out to us they're anxiously waiting for us to open so based on that and based on how many we can open in each space is how determines how many students we can how
070many staff we have to in order to meet state regulations so we're other than people already registering which they're anxious to do that we haven't opened the doors yet for that we know we have at least 18 to 20 something from the school itself any other questions yes sir Frank sorry Vivian um how much of what's going to be the are we charging people and how much or more or less are we is it going to be next meeting uh I will bring you the handbook that was just completed uh which has the rates and everything on them for a child we asked we tried to calculate the rate at our cost for personnel so we calculated what we what our Personnel would cost and we're setting the rate in order to cover those costs
071which is still a substantial discount from the going rate John if you have that ready before the next meeting could you get that out to us sure yep we just I just have uh the principal to look at the handbook and I think then we're ready to bring it to you I just want her feedback on it before we before I give it to you but uh and then I can I can send it out to you yeah anything further okay we pull through committee's all business district committee priorities policies non-new business table matters position title change superintendent are we addressing that this evening I'm sorry uh the table about us position title change is it just there that's still tabled until we settle the uh administrative contract part-time to full-time that's tabled also or
072yes okay Personnel considerations uh resignations I see none leave of absence I see none retirements appointments we have a couple of job postings which need to be voted on I have I don't know if you have more of it oh yes so we have MCAS we have MCAS tutors for the winter spring MCAS tasting uh tasting testing I'd like to taste them cats yeah only if you like wine uh per the CPA a CBA for 12 10 22 to 2 4 23 these are annual positions and uh social studies teach you long-term sub from March 2023 to the end of the year I have a motion on those two second discussion questions comments all those in favor anyone opposed future agenda items ongoing projects that's just ongoing right yep okay do we need uh make
073sense do we need anything further anything else uh no no uh Francis Frank sorry Leo um can we get an update on the expansion of for automotive to um uh as far as Automotive is going the uh block walls are pretty much completed waiting for the uh the roof trusses uh to arrive and then after that they'll put the panel down and start the brickwork so it's moved much better uh in the last month or so so in there and also the opening between the new space and the old space has been uh done and so it's in much better we're in a much better place than we were a month ago I was starting to see better progress okay uh too that I uh wasn't on my desk the principal's report did they so
074that's another boy oh I'm sorry it's just the question that just answers the questions from uh you had at the last meeting I just want to make sure I didn't uh it's the follow-up requested information from the last one okay okay sorry I just uh I didn't I didn't want you to miss your your Limelight oh thank you uh yeah no that was just it I did in the same format that's just in response and it's a follow-up anything further it's time to kill except the motion to adjourn all those in favor and you want to close everyone please have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year when's our next meeting uh so January 3rd January January 3rd so we'll see you next year don't forget if you're if you have the time uh
075Mrs LaMontagne and I would love to have have you at the house sir for a little bit if you'd like to come over now if you don't know where the house is I can give you the address