001so good evening everyone my name is yolanda hamilton i am the diversity equity and inclusion consultant with the guffaw height city school district i want to thank you all for taking the time out um to participate in this bus rider virtual safety meeting hopefully you are um able to hear okay if there's any issues with the sound feel free to indicate that in the youtube chat and we're going to go ahead and get started because we want to be respectful of your time first things first i would like to ask just to confirm your rsvp for attendance in tonight's virtual safety meeting you can do so by emailing brenda benz she is the office assistant with the garfield heights city schools department of transportation you can see her email on the screen and for those
002of you that might be having issues seeing um the slides through the youtube i'm just going to spell out her email address it is b bins b i n n s at g h bulldogs.org i would like to ask in the subject line if you could put bus rider safety meeting and in the body of the email please submit your first and last name the name of your student and current grade level as well as the bus number go ahead and feel free to jot down the email address so that you can make your rsvp confirmed at following the meeting in addition during tonight's session should you have any questions as we are going through this information feel free to submit your questions via the youtube chat or you can text 216 four six six
003two one the text line will only be open until the close of tonight's meeting and again we'll have that number for you in the youtube chat so that you may text over your questions so we're going to go ahead and get right into tonight's agenda again we're convening this meeting to really have a discussion with you to update you on our safety concerns and issues and so for the purpose of tonight we're going to talk about the ongoing safety issues and concerns that have been arising upon during bus transport the importance of maintaining updated contact information with the department of transportation in the school district a brief review of bus safety guidelines a few testimonials from the bus drivers to inform parents as to what we're actually seeing take place during the buses and also
004discussing how parents can partner with us before we jump into it i want to thank um our director of technology ms bailey for helping us with the logistics for this virtual meeting and i also want to acknowledge our staff that are online for tonight's session thank you for making room for this so again regarding safety and behavioral issues what we've been seeing occur during the bus um on the buses are ongoing fights and altercations excessive use of profanity moving around while the bus is in transport disrespect towards bus drivers and staff and also students not abiding by the mass mandate it is important that we understand that bus busing is a privilege for our district and we really want to ensure the safety of all students and so even though there may be a few
005students that are causing disruption it really compromises the safety of all students and at this time i would like to invite carrie burgos to join in on the conversation so that she can be because she can share with you additional details regarding some of the safety issues that we're seeing during bus transport hello everybody welcome back from break um i will say we had a great week this week our first week back so thank you for that um like miss hamilton said we had a pretty rough beginning of the school year um it's been a rough year to start with anyways a lot of new stuff going on but we have been seeing a lot of fighting on the bus moving seats um the swearing has been excessive so um these are some of the
006topics we wanted to kind of go over and get control of just to avoid having the children lose their bus privileges so hopefully the bus drivers can talk to everybody and go over some of the things they're seeing personally on the bus and thank you all for coming yes and i want to mention prior to winter break every parent should have received a copy of the updated bus guidelines it is important that you review those guidelines with your students have a conversation take the time out to go through each of those guidelines those guidelines were drafted and many and they are informed by guidelines according to law and so we just want to make sure that you're really having the conversation with your students regarding the bus guidelines we are requiring that you return these
007guidelines um there's an opportunity there's a space excuse me for you to provide your signature just saying that you received it and that you have reviewed these with your child we are asking that you please sign and return this document by january 7th which happens to be tomorrow and by chance if you did not receive the document or you may have misplaced it feel free to email the department of transportation you can reach out directly to carrie burgles or to brenda benz and the email information and contact information for the department of transportation will be provided at the end of this presentation again the bus guidelines are not we cannot compromise on those because when those rules are broken it compromises the safety of all students on the buses one i want to bring to
008mind particularly the mass mandate what we're seeing is that students are not always being compliant with wearing their mask for the duration of bus transport if you we understand that you have days where you might be rushing out or a child forgets their mass and we do have masks that are provided for students but it is important for you to reinforce this messaging of of your child and the importance of them wearing a mask properly for the duration of their bus transport and also while they are inside of the school building what kerry and her department have shared is that we're seeing a lot of masks not being worn properly or they're either being discarded in the aisles and in the seats of the bus and again that's unsanitary and it also compromises not only
009the safety of other students but also the drivers it's important for us really to reinforce this mass mandate during bus transport because we want to make sure that we have a safe environment where we can continue busing as many of you have probably seen on the news and with other districts many districts have had to suspend busting privileges because of the spread of coba and again as a district we have been really working hard to ensure proper protocols and measures are in place and we want to be able to keep busing um privileges and we don't want to have our drivers out stick okay or our staff in the buildings so again when you're going over those guidelines with your students we're asking you to partner with us by enforcing those guidelines and making it
010clear to your child what the expectations are so that helps us to be able to partner to reinforce messaging to ensure the safety of all of our students so at this time i want to invite our bus drivers that are on for tonight's session to chime in to share candidly what they are seeing in terms of behavioral challenges and other things that compromise safety during their bus routes so the drivers who are on tonight if you can just share your name and also the bus number that you drive and if you can just share with our listening audience some of the challenges that you're experiencing during transport um i'll speak then my name is miss stacy stacy johnson bus number 10 challenges i'm running into our kids don't want to keep their masks on they
011like to continually socialize in other kids faces and they got the mask pulled down they like to stand up when you've asked them continually to have a seat stay in their seats i'm also going through where they're having crayons breaking crayons and throwing crayons along around in the bus at other students when you give them a mask when they come on the bus even in the afternoon i'm going through this you give them a mass next thing i know they don't have it on them or it's on the floor or some excuse where they're having telling me oh that mask broke or i dropped it or i forgot where i put it at okay thank you miss stacy does that summarize pretty much everything that you're seeing how to house your relationship with the students
012on the bus are you having some of the bus drivers share that they're experiencing students using profanity and things like that is that happening on your bus route mine not as bad because i had set my rules at the beginning of the year so mine not as bad that when they've done it mine are pretty good both schools are pretty good where they kind of app they apologize or they kind of acknowledge you know oops but not not as bad okay thank you for sharing that miss stacy and i'm sure that there are no oops at home right so the expectation in your home is for your child not to use profanity we need you to reinforce that messaging that just because they're on the bus and parents are not present the same behavioral expectations
013are expected again um thank you miss stacy for sharing with us about the ongoing issue with masking it is very important especially with the spread of this new variant for you to have those conversations with your child and we encourage you also to set consequences right we know that there are consequences to behaviors and it's very important to understand that the mass mandate is a part and just as important as the other guidelines that are outlined as well including not permitting parents on the bus so for example if there is an issue with your student you need to make a call to the department of transportation because it is against the law for anyone that is not staff of the guard for height city school district to enter the bus other things such as moving
014around during the bus that poses a huge safety issue should the bus have to come to a sudden stop again it compromises the safety of not just your child but all students who are on the bus so we want to continue to make sure that your child has these buff busting privileges that they're safe during transport just so that you you can rest a little easy knowing that your kids are safe on their way to school all i would like to ask the other driver that is present if you can chime in on the conversation and just share again your name your bus route and some of the things that you're seeing on your bus okay um andy i think that you're on mute okay hello my name is mr andrew i'm on bus number
01511 and i take the high school kids to the cvcc and uh to give a positive note um most of my students are very very good and there's just a handful of individuals that like to be the ones that misbehave and such as not wearing their masks or uh being disrespectful and talking back and um and and you know just the regular stuff but for the most part a lot of the students are very well behaved and are doing what they're supposed to be doing and i think that's probably because they're you know the older students the high school students but like i say there are just the the few certain individuals and those are the repeat offenders that always are the ones that are you know maybe just looking for attention or what have
016you but for the most part you know a lot of the majority of my students are you know very good thank you mr andrew so for parents to have students that attend cvcc again we ask you to enforce the rules and the guidelines to have a talk with them about what respectful communication looks like not using profanity on the bus again we want to um make sure that students are hearing by the guidelines and understanding that again busing is a privilege and there are consequences when those guidelines are violated carrie can you share a bit with um the parents just to kind of go over some of the consequences for not following the rules or guidelines during bus transport absolutely um and you'll also find it on the papers that were sent home to you
017and it all depends on the actual situation itself so minor issues if there's cuss words said or moving a seat we are going to give the children some chances we'll do write-ups we will always send a copy paper copy home to the parents we do try to call if we don't get through always check to see if they have a paper copy with them of their write-up if you ever have any questions just call the garage we have cameras on the buses we could look it over and see if something doesn't seem right to you um but we are really cracking down this year just because of the issues we've had so um after three write-ups the children will get time off the bus depending on like i said the situation will depend on the
018amount of time fighting is automatic so if they're a fight both sides they will get time automatically off the bus we don't want to see the children off the bus and that's one of the reasons we're doing this now just to try to avoid some of this before it happens so that's why we're asking that you talk to the students to avoid them getting time off the bus okay thank you and that's the reminder to our listening audience feel free to chime in on the chat or to send any questions that you have to the text number um we'll put the text number in the chat again it's 216 264-6621 i just want to read off a couple of questions that are in comments that are coming in let's see okay one parent says hello
019i received a form to sign for my child who attend cvcc however my child does not ride the bus they drive do i still need to sign this form so i'm assuming kerry at one point it may have been a student who was riding the bus but perhaps is driving now they're probably an eligible student to ride the bus um a name we received so they did go out to everybody that was on our list we received so if you're not reading the bus no i mean you do not have to if they are going to at all ride the bus through the winter or anything yes please do okay so if the student is made you know having car issues or can't drive it would be good to have that on file again just
020to confirm that you have received the guidelines and that you're aware of what the pilot with the guidelines outline there is another there another question coming through okay i think that was just a comment for a parent checking in um mrs bailey these are were there any isn't cbcc a privilege i would say um it's an opportunity that we afford to in to students in our district again anytime a student is given the opportunity to use the district's transportation services it is a privilege meaning that there are um rules and regulations in place in order to continue to have the continuance of those bus privileges i just want to make sure i have mr saluka that i articulated that correctly and so in essence um the answer to your question would be yes absolutely it
021is it is a privilege any bus rider it's a privilege to ride a bus we're required to transport to the cvcc but it is a privilege um it's not mandatory if you're not following the rules so it's it's kind of like a two-way street but yes anybody that's eligible to ride a bus we count them as a rider regardless they drive so please turn in your form just acknowledge that if you do have to ride the bus you understand our rules and regulations okay thank you for that clarification another um comment came into the text line should my child return the form to the school office i'm sorry i've received forms today from parents dropping off i have received them um from the school so the principals must have received some i've also received a
022bunch from the bus driver so thank you to everybody that's been turning them in we got quite a nice stack back today so i hope to see the same tomorrow any way that you can get it in through the bus driver the principals however you choose that's good so your child can bring the but the form and either turn it into the bus driver or turn it into their principal or if you are a parent that prefers to drop it off directly to the department of transportation you can do that or you can send it via email as long as it's a stand copy that's signed by you okay thank you i don't think that there are any more questions at the time in the youtube chat so we're gonna go ahead and continue okay
023so next is the importance of having your contact information up to date and the reason why that isn't well i'm sorry let me back up parents as partners so again we're having this meeting because we want to have you as the parents as partners to ensure and enforce the guidelines to ensure that all students are safe and so what this committee would look like it would consist of a group of parents and representatives from the department of transportation to really partner together and bridge the gap to enforce the safety guidelines and ensuring that the students maintain compliance to those guidelines while they are in transit what this will consist of is really to help foster better communication between the department of education and parents so it's relationship building right because we understand that the extent
024of your communication with the department of transportation is simply putting your kids on the bus in the morning and waving at them or the driver as they're pulling off right but we want to be able to really work to have an understanding um a better understanding to build relationships so that you can understand what these safety challenges are when they come up and really working with the drivers to ensure the safety of your child and other students so in essence parents you would be just working as a liaison to really create positive relationships between other parents as well as the drivers helping to you know talk through and resolve and mediate different issues that may come up and again this is an opportunity where you can partner with the department of transportation we really want
025to build that relationship so that we can reduce the amount of amount of incidents that are occurring on the buses one urgent matter we this is very important we need you to ensure that your contact information is updated and on file with the department of transportation and the school district some families have changed phone numbers um addresses or email addresses are not up to date it is important for you to ensure that your contact information is updated so that when information and updates are sent out we have that on file also more importantly if there is an emergency that occurs while your student is in transport if we do not have your updated contact information it makes it challenging for us to reach you and so again updating your contact information those emergency contacts it's
026very important again a safety issue when we're not able to reach a family i want to pause here for another question mrs bailey was there another question from the chat okay my apology so again just ensuring that um your your contact information is up to date and on file if you are interested in signing up to be a participant in the safety committee again you can reach out to carrie or brenda carrie is the transportation supervisor her email address is here c bergholtz c b e r g h o l z at g gh bulldogs.org or brenda bins b bins b-b-i-n-n-s at g-h-bulldogs dot o-r-g or you can give their office a call again we want to encourage you to become a part in the safety committee we want to try this out as a
027pilot just to really begin the steps of improving communication between the department of transportation and parents and families so again the things that we are asking you for tonight and wrapping up tonight's session it's to one confirm your rsvp you can either do that by submitting your name the name of your child and grade and the bus route to the text number that's available on the youtube chat or you can email kerry or brenda who whose information is on this slide also we want to ensure that you return those forms by tomorrow january 7th and lastly ensuring that your contact information is updated with the district another question that came in through the youtube chat before we close out when can my daughter get back on the pass she was removed in october she signed
028and sent in the form i'm not sure i'll ellie answer this because i did speak with mom on the phone um she will be able to ride tomorrow i did get your form and you did come to the meeting so yes um this is basically what we wanted to do we wanted to go over everything that's expected of the children you did follow up with the requirements and that's what we want we want communication and so hopefully you know with all the communication we had with your daughter it'll be better from now on so as long as everything was gone over she could start again tomorrow can i chime in here miss hamilton uh we had we had a lot of students that were um suspended for the bus for fighting of which they have
029been out for a lengthy period of time if any parent is on whose child has been suspended for fighting if they would like reinstatement then they need to make that uh the same uh request from ms burkholtz and we will review making sure that they signed off and acknowledged and uh we will give them another opportunity to get back on our bus um just know that we um we give one opportunity and if it happens again then it's uh at least a parent knows and the child knows that this is their last opportunity to ride the bus without further incident so if you do have a child who has been put off for the year be due to an egregious act on our bus if you would like to have that child reinstated please contact
030and make your request to ms burkholtz and please sign the form and send it in acknowledging thank you okay um before we close out i know that we have um some of our building representatives here if anyone else would like to chime into the conversation before we close out tonight's meeting i see uh miss rizzi that you are on tonight is there anything that you would like to add for parents hi parents i just want to add reinforcing that when they go to the bus and they get off the bus that they walk we have a crosswalk that goes right through our parking lot and there are cars parked there that sometimes pull out and we have students uh running from off of the bus to school and we are encouraging that they walk for
031safety issues so i've ridden the bus once a month every day since the beginning of school and of course when i ride it's fun the kids and i are talking and it's it seems manageable but i know miss stacy every day is reinforcing wear the mask put your mask on she gives them a mask and i'm just re one to reinforce with parents please send your child with a mask and encourage them to keep that mask we go through thousands of masks every day you see me at the front door i'm passing out at least 100 masks a day and that's every day and that adds up so if you could reinforce that at home with your child or your children that would be great thank you so much okay thank you mrs rizzi so
032again um we encourage you reach out if you have any questions or concerns feel free to reach out to any member of the department of transportation thank you to those that were able to join us tonight and again we hope that um you continue to have a good rest of the school year thank you thank you bye