BEFORE THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

OF THE STATE OF MONTANA

 

In the matter of the amendment of ARM 10.64.301 pertaining to school bus requirements

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NOTICE OF AMENDMENT

 

TO: All Concerned Persons

 

1. On March 30, 2018, the Board of Public Education published MAR Notice No. 10-64-282 pertaining to the public hearing on the proposed amendment of the above-stated rule at page 611 of the 2018 Montana Administrative Register, Issue Number 6.

 

2. The Board of Public Education has amended the above-stated rule as proposed.

 

3. The following comments were received:

 

           COMMENT NO. 1: Fred Hofman, Superintendent of the Harrison School District, commented, ʺIn general, I support the proposed rules.  However, I do note the following:

 

Item 17 in the bus standards under General Vehicle Requirements, states 'if newly purchased' rather than 'if purchased new.'  The intent of the proposed rule was for this to apply to a new vehicle purchase, as new vehicles will likely have these as standard options.  A newly purchased used vehicle might not.  I think a minor change in wording as noted above, would make this a little less confusing. 

 

Item 3 under Operational Requirements is good. I think this is important with respect to the clarification that SCHOOL BUS does not necessarily need to be on the same line.  It might not be practical on the rear end in particular as many of the would be E-bus vehicles don't have an easy place to put magnets with the word SCHOOL BUS all together on one line on them.  I have looked and already inspected many of the more practical vehicles for schools to use an E-Bus and I think this is an important part of the rule. 

 

Item 6 under Operational Requirements: There is not anything necessarily wrong with this recommendation but it really should be clarified as a recommendation for schools that transport pupils who require a car seat.  If a school is not transporting students who require a car seat, then it is a wasteful expense for a school to send someone off to training and then keep up on it.  If a school transports pupils who require a car seat, then this is a very good recommendation."  

 

            RESPONSE: The Board of Public Education thanks Mr. Hofman for his support of the standards. Language will be updated as requested; see page 49 of the updated standards. With regard to his second comment, no request to make a change. Language does allow multiple lines.  With regard to the third comment, this is a recommendation only. The advantage to having staff trained for car seat installs is if a student who requires a car seat does ride a school bus, the staff are already trained and available. Again, this is a recommendation and ultimately at the discretion of the school district.

 

            COMMENT NO. 2: Mr. Steve Meloy, Montana School Boards Association (MTSBA), testified as a proponent of the proposed rule change. Mr. Meloy noted that after requests from the field, particularly the Harrison School District, MTSBA worked with Representative Shaw to pass the legislation in the 2017 session to pass the law creating the Type E school buses that the ARM rule change is based off. Mr. Meloy noted that the Harrison School District will be sending in written public comment on the rule change.

 

RESPONSE: The Board of Public Education thanks Mr. Meloy for his comment, appreciates MTSBA’s support and states the language will be updated; see page 49 of the updated document. (Same as comment above).

 

            COMMENT NO. 3:  Mr. Dennis Parman, Executive Director of the Montana Rural Education Association (MREA), testified as a proponent of the proposed rule change. Mr. Parman thanked MTSBA and Representative Shaw for working on the legislation and thanked the OPI staff as well for their work on the rule change. Mr. Parman stated that MREA supports the proposed rule change and asked if wording at the top of page 52 in the standards was also in need of update. 

 

RESPONSE: The Board of Public Education thanks Mr. Parman for his comment, appreciates MREA's support, and states the language referring to a school bus definition which was not updated with the law changes. However, this language does not need to be included in the standards as it is already addressed in statute. The following language will be removed from page 52:

 

ʺA school bus does not include (as defined in 20-10-101, MCA):

Privately owned and not operated for compensation

Privately owned and operated for reimbursement under MCA, 20-10-142.

Either district owned or privately owned, designed to carry not more than nine passengers, and used to transport pupils to or from activity events or to transport pupils to their homes in case of illness or other emergency situations; or an over-the-road passenger coach used only to transport students to activity events.

ʺTransportationʺ means, a district’s conveyance of a pupil by a school bus between the pupil’s legal residence or an officially designated bus stop and the school designated by the trustees for the pupil’s attendance.ʺ

 

COMMENT NO. 4: David Shreeve, Superintendent of Rosebud Schools, commented: ʺI want to write in full support of the proposed approval of schools being able to use a type 'E' vehicle for student transport. In a very small District like Rosebud, it has the advantage of coming closer to filling the vehicle with students rather than a regular bus running with most seats open. Given much of our travel to pick up students is on gravel roads, which will be far more effective with the type 'E' vehicle especially during snow and mud season; particularly if we have 4 wheel drive. Questions I did have, must the vehicles used have a 5 star safety rating and is there a chance a list of approved vehicles be assembled and provided or is that just too difficult to complete?"

 

RESPONSE: The Board of Public Education thanks Mr. Shreeve for his support of the standards. In response to your inquiries, yes, this is a requirement in statute, not just the bus standards. Please see 20-10-101, MCA, specifically (4)(a)(ii):

(a) "School bus" means …. (ii) is district-owned, is designed to carry 10 or fewer passengers, has an overall safety rating of five stars from the national highway traffic safety administration at the time of purchase, and is insured in accordance with minimum coverage requirements set forth in 20-10-109.

 

This information is available online at the NHTSA website. Please visit https://www.nhtsa.gov/ratings for the ratings information. The language does allow for older models to be purchased and used so long as that year and model was rated 5 stars.

 

 

/s/ Peter Donovan___________               /s/ Sharon Carroll___________________

Peter Donovan                                          Sharon Carroll, Chair

Rule Reviewer                                           Board of Public Education

 

Certified to the Secretary of State May 14, 2018.