Daniel Boone Area School District Superintendent James P. Harris said letters detailing students’ bus stops, school bus numbers, and arrival and departure times were mailed to parents on Aug. 18.
Transportation issues can be addressed with the district’s new Transportation Coordinator Jeff Belford, who is located in the district offices.
Board member Dane Ochis-O’Neil, chairman of the Transportation Committee, said the committee’s Aug. 29 meeting will be rescheduled for mid September.
He said cameras and back-of-the-bus, child-check reminder system switches have been installed on all buses.
The board approved last fall the purchase and installation of the child-check reminder systems following a kindergarten student who was locked in a bus for four hours the first day of school.
That student was not physically injured.
The device – located at the rear of the bus – requires deactivation by bus drivers after they have inspected the bus for any remaining students.
Ochis-O’Neil said the district has strived for bus rides to not exceed 45 minutes, except for the “farthest regions in the township, where it is not logistically possible [for the bus ride to be less than 45 minutes].”
Board members will vote on Aug. 28 on a resolution that “supports [a] PSERS (Public School Employees Retirement System) pension fund investigation” to determine if there has been any fund mismanagement, specifically high risk investments.
Their agreement to draft a resolution was prompted by board member Carol Beitz.
The resolution would be similar to the draft resolution prepared by the East Penn School District, Emmaus, Lehigh County.
East Penn’s draft resolution “demands” that Gov. Thomas Wolf, the Attorney General, Auditor General, State Treasurer, and all House and Senate Legislative Members appoint an “independent (outside) forensic auditor to audit the PSERS pension fund.”
“The investigation will confirm for the taxpayers, why the unfunded liability has sky rocketed to over $50 billion and continues to grow,” says East Penn’s draft resolution.
Beitz cited a Feb. 8, 2015 column by State Rep. Thomas Caltagirone and Loan Broker Richard H. Shucker, Shillington, which states the loss of “36 percent while continuing to pay high fees to Wall Street and make risky investments.”
“The money is meant to be paid out to retired folks, and retired teachers,” said board Vice President Jeffrey Scott.
“Why are they investing a substantial portion of it in high-risk hedge funds?”
“I think it’s just a strong force of saying there’s got to be some accountability here,” said Beitz.
She also cited the Aug. 14 opinion in Philly.com: “The myths of the underpaid and overworked teachers in Pa.”
That opinion piece, written by Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan attributes the current pension crisis – “underfunded by about $43 billion” – to politicians from 1990 to 2000, who made changes to the teacher retirement plan, which was then fully funded.
They say that politicians acquired votes to allow the teacher retirement plan “to match the skyrocketing returns private retirements plans were getting.”
And, since “teacher pension benefits are guaranteed, regardless of market performance,” the plans “didn’t suffer when the S&P 500 fell by 40 percent from 2000 through 2009.”
“… when the market tumbled, suddenly there wasn’t enough money to pay for the lavish benefits politicians had promised.”
The result, they say, is that Pennsylvania taxpayers will need to pay that $43 billion, “beyond what they currently pay in taxes.”
Beitz said the Daniel Boone School District, with a $55 million budget, is now paying more than $7 million a year in pension costs.