A presentation to the LCS Board at the May 13, 2019 agenda workshop by the company (EDULOG) hired to redesign the bus system noted that “courtesy stops” and ESE students would not be a part of the “optimization study.”
From the study:
The scope of the investigation of all three questions was defined to include transportation-eligible general education students attending 44 schools/programs (including two IB schools).
The study identified approximately 2,500 students who would not be eligible for transportation based on the distance from their school. Courtesy stops are stops for students that are less than two-miles form their school.
The 2,500 impacted students identified in the study is more than the number of impacted students identified in a LCS letter released in late 2018. That communication stated that 1,000 students would be impacted.
The study also noted that ESE students would not be part of the optimization plan.
The scope defined by Leon County Schools specifically excluded Exceptional Student Education (“ESE”) students, due to the high level of individualization and variability of ESE transportation, both of which introduce data noise in any comparative impact study.
After the first day of school a number of parents with ESE children said that they waited for buses that never arrived. Also, they were told by LCS later in the day that they had to pick up their children after school.
What Happened?
A representative from EDULOG told the LCS Board at the regularly scheduled August 13th meeting that the problems during the first day of school were attributed to a data problem and a new approach to route optimization that was not well received by the bus drivers.
It was revealed that the LCS Board was not made aware of the data issue, which occurred on July 24th.
The Director of Transportation Services, Manny Joanos, took responsibility for not informing the Board.
Also, the LCS Board was informed that changes to the plan would be implemented beginning Friday that should make it more “driver friendly.”
These changes include keeping the same bus driver for the morning and afternoon routes and restoring courtesy stops for elementary schools.
LCS Transportation Study Left Out “Courtesy Stops”, ESE Students added by Staff on
View all posts by Staff →
Don’t reassign the incompetent Manny Joanos. Fire him.
Any time you find poisonous fruit, burn the tree. Every single contract Maddox had anything to do with should be rebid and with extreme scrutiny.
Great comment! Especially burning that tree where poison fruit originated from.
Waste Pro is the worst company I have ever dealt with. I have to call each and every time I need yard debris picked up and my wait time on phone is 13 minutes. Whoever hired these incompetent people should be fired. Our former company Waste Management was awesome.
Contact Shawn Abbott at the county 606 – 1820. He will take care of problems.
Waste Pro is under serving the county Waste Pro customers especially regarding yard debris. They try to get out of it because they don’t want to put the effort or money into it because those funds are going to Gary Yordon and Scott Maddox instead of servicing Waste Pro customers.
School Board’s next Paid for Study to save money will be a Plan where the Busses have no stops at all ..
My first thought was that EDULOG (Education Logistics, Inc.) was yet another US-based company that has replaced their American software engineers with foreign guest workers (similar to the company that was responsible for the SunPass debacle we experienced last year). I was surprised to discover that they actually have zero H-1Bs on staff. However, employee reviews at Glassdoor indicate that their ongoing software and support problems are due to *outsourcing* their work to cheaper countries rather than *insourcing* cheaper workers from outside the US.
Either way, it’s two sides of the same coin. Cheaper foreign technology workers are the gift that keeps on giving, or as CEOs like to say, “just the cost of doing business” (ask Boeing how that strategy worked out for them with the 737 MAX software).
Rocky and the school board allowed this to go through and didn’t even ask any questions.
Where have we seen the same thing recently where the leadership allowed the County Waste Pro to win the bid?
Scott Maddox and Gary Yordon were illegally working/lobbying with Waste Pro and the county allowed a meeting and awarded Waste Pro the bid even though Scott Maddox and Gary Yordon were not within the guidelines of the law. Waste Pro should have been DISQUALIFIED, but they were awarded the bid and this falls on the county Administrator and the County Commissioners.
Because Waste Pro is illegally paying Scott Maddox and Gary Yordon the citizens of Leon County are underserved to compensate for monies being diverted to those two.
Again, the County Administrator had the responsibility to disqualify Waste Pro because of their illegal association with Scott Maddox and Gary Yordon.
Shouldn’t the Chamber of Commerce disqualify Yordon from being a Master of Ceremonies at the yearly chamber junket workshop disguised as a political public relations party at the taxpayers expense?
The insanity continues.
Keep exposing it! Thank you Ms. Hope!