COUNTIES: Allen, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Lucas, Paulding, Putnam, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, Wood, and Wyandot

PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 88

JOINT VOCATIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 5

EDUCATIONAL SERVICE CENTERS: 9

BOARDS OF DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES: 14

REGIONAL DIRECTOR: Click Here

CONTACT: northwest@oapt.org

REGIONAL ROAD-E-O:

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Pike-Delta-York MS, 1101 Panther Pride Dr., Delta 43515

Jim Wolpert, Chairman – 419-822-3391 – jwolpert@pdys.org
 

View Larger Map

Next Regional Meeting:

Friday, 5 April 2013 — 10:00am – 12:00pm

Archbold High School

600 Lafayette St.

Archbold, OH 43502

RSVP Here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NWOAPT

Regional Meeting Minutes (11/2/12):

A roundtable discussion for persons in the NW Region was held at the Bowling Green City Schools Performing Arts Center on Friday, November 2 from 10am until 12pm.  In attendance were 22 transportation administrators, as well as Bob Harmon of the Pupil Transportation Office at ODE, Ron Heitmeyer, Region 1 Area Coordinator for ODE, and Joe Dietrich, NW Regional Preservice Instructor.

Brian Whitta opened the meeting and reviewed new technology that OAPT is using to reach members and to keep folks informed of association happenings, industry news, and safety tips.  Attendees were provided with links to the new OAPT website, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Youtube pages.

Brian encouraged all to join OAPT (if not already members) and made membership applications available.

The group discussed the frequency by which the region should meet, and it was decided regional meetings will rotate throughout the region in an effort to reach more persons who may not be able to travel as far as others.

Additionally, members would like to have more regional offerings for professional development, even if those same sessions were previously offered in Columbus.

A discussion about conference topics took place, and several attendees suggested having tract options during the conference so one could tailor their courses specific to their need at the time.  Tract sessions could be offered on one of the days and would allow someone to follow a specific theme, such as “service reductions,” “special education,” “leadership,” “reporting,” etc.

Bob Harmon led a discussion about trending topics throughout the state, including an interpretation of ORC 4511.63 and subsequent paragraph (C)(1).  This section is concerning vehicles that must stop at railroad crossings.  According to this law, all school “vans” (any vehicle other than a school bus that could legally transport children, Ref: OAC 3301-83-19) must stop at all railroad crossings, whether or not students are aboard.  This is a change in previous guidance.  While school buses have always been required to stop at railroad crossings, the State has previously advised vans only stopped when students were on board.  All districts are advised to immediately re-train their staff so that all school buses and all school vans stop at all railroad crossings, always.

Joe Dietrich reviewed a list of items with attendees including:

• The new Ohio Pupil Transportation Operation and Safety Rules are available for download from the ODE website
• Minimum age requirements for insurability for bus and van drivers
• Headlights must be on at all times — Previously a best practice, it is now in law
• Four-way flashers (“Hazard Lights”) must be used when loading/unloading at schools when the bus is on the roadway, Ref: OAC 3301-83-12(D)
• Railroad Crossing violations (even in one’s personal vehicle) will result in a 1-year disqualification of driving school vehicles
• Speeding in a school bus in a school zone will result in a 1-year disqualification of driving school vehicles
• Disobeying the red lights and stop arm of another school bus will result in a 1-year disqualification of driving school vehicles
• The parking brake must be set at all student pickup/discharge locations
• The driver-designated place of safety is further defined as relative to the roadway in which the bus is scheduled to stop
• Hand signals are now required for the right side pickup, as well as left side crossovers

Joe further explained that size limitations (no more than 38 people) are now placed on the PS classes at Penta Career Center as he is teaching in a smaller space.  All registrations for the PS class (new or recertification) must be sent in 7 days prior to the class starting; a new interactive PDF form is on the Allen County ESC website.

All registration forms should be scanned and e-mailed to: schoolbus@staff.allencountyesc.org.  Carol Schiffer has retired (Congratulations, Carol!) and Ashley is the new assistant at 419-222-1836 Ext 102.

Joe discussed T9 forms and asked administrators to verify the scores on the OBI sheets.

The van booklet and video are posted online to the ODE website.

Lastly, Joe urged administrators to update their contact information in the SFPS Emergency Contact System.

In upcoming NW Regional Meetings we will be trying a new “Table Topic” format to help expose all attendees to different viewpoints and ideas for addressing issues.