Ludington Bus Problems: Bigger Than They Appear

[XLFD]

On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, I noticed some southern Michigan news outlets reporting on their latest, favorable reviewing of the most recent bus inspections carried on by the Michigan State Police.  Finding the actual statewide report wasn't that difficult, and I made it even easier for you by posting it here. 

As you may recall, Mason County Central (MCC) Schools and their Superintendent Jeff Mount came under fire from the Ludington Torch back in 2013 and 2014 for having a very significant majority of their buses failing inspections.  If you missed that here were those findings:

2013:  MCC Superintendent Keeps Public Uneducated

MCC Superintendent Mount Bussed-ed?

MCC's Red-Tagged Bus Fleet: Nineteen Strong and Very Red

2014:  MCC Schools' Bus Fleet Once Again in the Red for Inspections

But this last school year, the head honchos at MCC decided that they would lease their school buses rather than purchase them, and so their accountability for the buses would not exist.  What is relevant in that regard is whether that will wind up costing the school district a lot more than having their own fleet, or for that matter, whether it will cost less and whether the leased buses will pass their own inspections.  The report notes in a category of "Contractor Fleet Buses", that only about 85% pass inspection, roughly the state average which out of roughly 16,000 school buses inspected, 13,600 pass, 800 get a yellow card, and 1500 fail.

But now there's Ludington Area School District (LASD), who as noted in the previous reports of Scottville, did not have it's best bus forward.  Out of the 761 districts, the LASD bus fleet did very well on a stat that is very bad.  See whether you can tell what it is by looking at the report's page that it is on (you will also notice Manistee's figures): 

The unenviable stat that Ludington came in second out of all those districts was that except for the Mt. Morris district, there was no other district that had at least ten failed buses and a failure rate as high as Ludington.  Compared to the pass/fail rate of Ludington (8/10), Detroit City buses at(408/20) look pretty good.  Macomb ISD above has 166/0, without even any yellows.  This ineptitude on LASD's bus maintenance cannot be blamed solely on the poor conditions of our war-torn streets, but more on the district's current ambivalence, as was in display the very next day in the local paper.

With the runner-up ribbon for worst failure rate for Michigan districts with at least ten failed buses, you would think the superintendent and board would have steps implemented to correct it in the future.  But...

"All of our buses are green and ready to go" says Superintendent Andrea Large, implying that they have already been inspected this year and been rated as green.  "All of the problems they found are taken care of and they're ready to go."  

MCC Superintendent Mount said about the same cheery things two years ago, when the next year they had similar failure rates that inspired downstate writers to look at their problems, and for Scottville to seek out a solution.

The pass rate for Ludington in those two years were not as bad, but showed there was a problem that needed addressing.  Perhaps when this next year's report comes out and shows Ludington all green we can believe Ms. Large and that LASD is looking out for our kids' safety.  But don't hold your breath.

[Willy]

Good report X. This certainly has been an on going thorn in Ludington School Districts side. It reflects badly on Ludington when area's such as Macomb having 0 red busses out of 166 or Manistee's 1 red out of 19. Something is not right with Ludington's bus program.

[shinblind]

Remember that school bond that passed a few years ago, the one to replace the LSD buses. Replace a few buses each year as tax money became available.  The 8 buses that passed inspection were probably the new ones. But why so many failures that did not make the cut? They had all summer to get them ready or do they ignore them until school begins. I can understand not wanting to sink a lot of money into something that's going to be replaced but ignoring safety issues to save a buck is foolhardy. It makes me question if the new buses are being properly maintained or if they are also trying to save a buck with them.

[XLFD]

I have a FOIA request with the LASD to get the results of last year's bus inspections, and I hope to get the chance to check out the bus barn when the results come in.  It's more telling to get the full report and have a look than hear someone from LASD administration says that the problem was insignificant and is totally solved.

[stump]

My question is : Is it the primary job of the people who inspect these busses through out the state? or local county state police? That could make a difference as even if written ,different people could view the inspection in different ways.

[XLFD]

To my understanding it is some trained Michigan State Police bus inspector(s) who do the work, one would expect that there would be more than one inspector because of the sheer number of buses looked at (16,000) and the amount of travel to be involved.  One would expect the several inspectors to be regionalized. 

Because of this, there could be some stricter/laxer inspectors, in which case it would show up in the data if all of the districts that they inspect had pass/fail rates that were consistently one way or the other. 

If you check out Oceana and Lake County along with Mason County, there is a statistically significant large amount of buses that don't pass at the school districts there.  Yet, both Manistee, Onekama and Bear Lake have 100% passing grades.  My guess is the inspector at the Hart MSP post is a lot more of a stickler than the Manistee MSP post inspector, which is a good thing for us when we consider what is at stake.

[Jasper]

What happened to all the buses that did not pass inspections, and were replaced with rental buses?  Did they go "BUS" heaven or hell?  Taxpayers are paying heavily for this rental of buses.

Where did these misfit buses go?  The scrap yard??