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.NAPT MEMBER NEWS
Interested in Serving on the NAPT® Board? 2020 Nominations Are Now Open
NAPT
We will be conducting elections this year in NAPT® Region 2 and NAPT® Region 4
To see who currently holds these positions and what states each Region covers, click here.
Eligibility Requirements
- Must be an "Individual - Active" member of NAPT, as defined by the organization's by-laws
- Must have completed two full years as a member in good standing
- Must be nominated by a minimum of two Individual-Active members from the same Region of the association.
What does a NAPT® Regional Director do?
- Work with other Board members to establish or revise the Mission, Vision and Strategic Priorities of the organization.
- Communicate with school transportation professionals in your region, particularly NAPT® members.
- Promote the value of NAPT® to your peers and other members of the education community in your region.
- Lead and promote fundraising for the association, particularly in your region
Any NAPT® member interested in running for one of these seats should also visit the Members Only section of the NAPT® website and read Article IV, Section 4.21 of the NAPT By-laws.
Interested?
NAPT® values and seeks leaders from all types and sizes of organizations to serve on the Board. Following are ideal attributes of a Board member:
- Demonstrated leadership: For example, serving a leadership role within NAPT® or one of its State Affiliates, including but not limited to: Board member, committee chair, or project coordinator.
- Emotional intelligence, particularly the ability to work collaboratively and engage in timely, appropriate debate and discussion when needed, without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability or physical appearance.
- Visionary and strategic thinking: Demonstrated ability to implement new and innovative programs, incorporate strategy, leadership, future focus, risk taking, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
- Commitment to help NAPT® by regularly participating in informal conference calls and/or online conversations and/or meetings and at least one official Board meeting each year, either online or in-person.
Are you a good fit? If you are interested in serving, or know of potential board members you would like to recommend, please contact NAPT® Nominations Chair Rick Grisham.
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NAPT ACTS! Coming Soon
NAPT
We're just a few weeks away from launching NAPT ACTS!, which is exciting but also a bit unnerving because NAPT ACTS! is unlike anything we've ever tried before.
So, what is NAPT ACTS!?
In short, NAPT ACTS! is the school transportation component of a new streaming service that will offer both live and on-demand content created to help you effectively manage the current and future challenges in K-12 transportation.
Over the next 10 months, NAPT ACTS! is going to offer more than 40 different and unique keynotes, panel discussions and workshops featuring government policy makers; health and safety professionals; education leaders; union leadership; human resource professionals; and more, including, of course, many of your most innovative and creative public and private sector peers.
We're also developing content in conjunction with associations that represent school boards, superintendents, business officials and other administrators, as well as third parties not in the education establishment but relevant to your work.
In all these sessions, you can participate live to ask questions and get answers in real-time, or you can watch, listen and learn at whatever time best fits your busy schedule. You can register for everything, or you can pick and choose, whatever you want.
All this content will be delivered on a new learning experience platform that we're co-creating with the Center for Effective School Operations (CESO, pronounced "see-so"). Among the available features of this system are content management options that can identify for you in a Netflix-like style the "most popular" or "highest rated" content and offer recommendations. You will be able to create channels that focus on your interests, whether that's training, data utilization, human resource management, vehicle and equipment maintenance or something else.
NAPT ACTS! will also include valuable education and training created by industry suppliers, each of whom will enable you to download product specs, instructions and brochures, ask questions or even video chat.
As you can see, NAPT ACTS! is not a conference; it's a whole new way of helping you get what you need. Think of it as a "home-base" that provides you with greater access to ideas and innovations, more flexibility in how you manage your time and a variety of affordable, cost effective education, training and certification options.
In the last 6 months, everyone involved in school transportation has been part of significant change in K-12 education. NAPT intends to remain in the forefront of this movement and we are creating NAPT ACTS! to help you stay ahead of the curve. We are working hard right now to put the finishing touches on NAPT ACTS! and can't wait to show you what it looks like.
If you're excited, that's great, because we are too. Please stay tuned. You'll be hearing from us again soon.
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New NAPT Publication on the Way
NAPT
The NAPT and Foundation Boards believe the challenges we face these days can best be served by better communications tailored specifically to the needs of our members. So, we are collaborating with a respected national publisher to create a comprehensive portfolio of integrated digital media products and services, including our own magazine, called SchoolBUSRide.
SchoolBUSRide will feature in-depth coverage of federal and state activities; up-to-the minute regulatory and compliance coverage; exclusive columns by leading industry experts; vehicle and product field tests; equipment road tests; new product and service information; custom research and analysis; and editorial content by trusted industry thought leaders throughout North America. Our goal is to make SchoolBUSRide the leading source of industry, and particularly industry association, news.
Watch your in-box; the first issue will arrive soon.
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The Safety Vision IR Thermometer is used to measure passengers’ temperature quickly and easily as they board the bus or enter the building. Scanning any part of the face or hand, temperature readings are displayed on the LED screen, in addition to an audible voice that states if the person’s temperature is within range.
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Keep Your NAPT® Member Profile Up-to-Date
NAPT
Now is a great time to log in to the NAPT® website and update your member profile!
Once you're logged in:
- View and update your personal information — it's quick and simple. As soon as you log in, you'll see all of your information and have the ability to make edits as necessary.
- Upload a professional photo to display in your profile that will be visible in the Online Member Directory.
- Provide a brief professional biography in the space provided so we can learn a little more about you.
- Select your Directory Category by clicking on "My Directory Options" and selecting the appropriate organization type.
Log in today! Please contact headquarters at 800.989.6278 if you need assistance logging in to the system.
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Connect with NAPT
NAPT
Let NAPT help you stay in touch with colleagues and up-to-date on industry news and interesting stories from around the nation.
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.INDUSTRY NEWS
Private bus and vessel industries furlough 308,000 employees due to pandemic
Bus & Motorcoach News
The U.S. private motorcoach, school bus and domestic passenger vessel industries have collectively furloughed or laid off an estimated 308,000 employee jobs over the last eight months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Bus Association, United Motorcoach Association, National School Transportation Association and Passenger Vessel Association urge Congress to include the bipartisan CERTS Act (S 4150/HR 7642) as part of any COVID-19 stimulus package.
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Thousands of industry professionals subscribe to association news briefs, which allows your company to push messaging directly to their inboxes and take advantage of the association's brand affinity.
Connect with Highly Defined Buyers and Maximize Your Brand Exposure
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Wash a School Bus in less than 5 minutes! Using only 5 gallons of water and 1 ounce of soap per minute, walk around the bus applying soap and the second time using fresh water, all automated. We are the world’s most economical, ecological and efficient bus wash system!
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COVID-19 exposure quarantines Bellefontaine City Schools bus drivers
WSYX/WTTE
Nine Bellefontaine City Schools bus drivers have to quarantine for 14 days after exposure to COVID-19. The exposure affects nine of 12 buses. In a transportation notice sent out by Bellefontaine City School District Superintendent Brad Hall, the exposure affects "most of our transportation department." Because most of the bus drivers have to quarantine, the district is asking parents to provide transportation.
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D93 transportation suspended for secondary schools until Oct. 13
KIFI/KIDK
Bonneville School District 93 Superintendent Scott Woolstenhulme announced Sunday the district does not have enough bus drivers to drive all the bus routes this week. He said they are forced to suspend most bus routes for high school and middle school students until Tuesday, October 13.
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Prioritizing school funding in the midst of multiple crises
eSchool News
Faced with fast-changing instructional models, varying infection rates, decreasing revenue sources, and a variety of natural disasters, how can education finance officials meet the short-term needs of their districts as well as longer-term school funding requirements?
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Some Delaware school districts struggling with bus driver shortages
Delaware State News
Retirement and health concerns have some, but not all, downstate school districts grappling with bus driver shortages in the initial stages of in-person instruction during the coronavirus pandemic. In one of the state's largest districts, Indian River, a driver shortage has forced the district to delay efforts to bring in high school students earlier than projected.
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Feds to ship millions of tests in bid to reopen K-12 schools
The Associated Press
President Donald Trump announced that the federal government will begin distributing millions of rapid coronavirus tests to states and urged governors to use them to reopen schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The move to vastly expand U.S. testing comes as confirmed new COVID-19 cases remain elevated at more than 40,000 per day and experts warn of a likely surge in infections during the colder months ahead. It also comes just five weeks before the November election, with Trump facing continued criticism for his handling of the crisis.
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SEPTA and Philly schools should focus on safe transportation for reopenings
The Philadelphia Inquirer
SEPTA riders have recently given city officials feedback that should shape the city's school reopening conversations this fall. By and large, riders do not consider riding public transit safe during COVID, according to SEPTA's July Travel Survey of over 2,700 riders in Philadelphia. As adults returned to work and ridership increased over the summer, SEPTA employees have struggled to enforce mask requirements and are at increased risk of exposure: There have now been over 350 confirmed SEPTA employee coronavirus cases.
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When there's a COVID-19 vaccine, school employees could be among the first to get it
Education Week
When a COVID-19 vaccine is finalized and approved, schools will serve a key role in administering it, and educators may be among those to receive the earliest available doses, a new federal plan says. That plan positions U.S. schools, which have experienced unprecedented disruption because of the pandemic, as a crucial partner in one of the largest public health operations in recent memory.
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District budgets, expenses in flux while in-person learning remains uncertain
Education DIVE
School districts nationwide "are really scrambling" to line up their budgets with expected expenses as a result, Griffith said, adding it's likely districts will change their budgets multiple times over the school year. In Texas, North Carolina, California and other states where funding is directly linked to enrollment, districts are being "held harmless" for dipping enrollment numbers. However, Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators, said that's only until early November in his state. If the state doesn't act after that, districts will get "hammered on funding," Brown said.
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Hewitt: Mother starts petition against school bus mile radius rule
KWTX
Every week, many Central Texas students walk to and from school, but one Midway ISD mother says her child isn't safe. Eight-year-old Aliza Ferrell lives less than two miles from Spring Valley elementary school in Hewitt. Due to that fact, she's not allowed to ride the bus to school. The district follows a state recommendation that anyone within two miles of their campus cannot ride the bus unless they live in a designated hazardous area.
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Data that educators need to reopen schools isn't coming. So they're collecting it themselves.
EdSurge
The sweep of the coronavirus across the U.S. has produced an information paradox. News reports — and rumors — about the pandemic are inescapable. Yet without a coordinated national response to the crisis, reliable data that could help inform policy is scarce. School leaders trying to make decisions about whether and how to reopen physical classrooms this fall are feeling the absence of useful statistics acutely. So too are parents wondering whether to send their kids to school in person, if and when they have that option.
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School leaders launch National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard
THE Journal
A group of national education organizations, researchers and technology experts has launched the National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard, a database that maps schools' voluntary responses to the pandemic across the United States. The data is intended to help school administrators, state leaders, families and the general public review the current conditions of the virus in their own communities, compare that information to other places and make decisions for the school year based on the data.
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By Anne Rose (commentary)
 Hiring an employee or appointing someone to take charge of an important assignment is a serious endeavor. Ideally, it's one in which you critically assess the skills and character of the applicant before selecting the most suitable. Ideally. But sometimes such a decision isn't so much a thoughtful, critical judgment as it is an emotional, visceral response to a perceived sense of obligation.
READ MORE
5 reasons why some schools were ready for COVID shutdown
District Administration Magazine
Five factors were good indicators of how successfully principals and their schools transitioned to online learning when COVID shut down classrooms in the spring. Only a minority of school leaders were ready were a COVID-level crisis, according to new research from The Rand Corporation.
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8 qualities of great leaders who get the best out of their teams
Entrepreneur
In a world of increased flux and uncertainty, today's sense of normal continues to shift and slide to finds its place in our lives and work. Amid significant business changes, leaders need to dig deeper into their sense of courage, empathy and trust.
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Reduced school bus capacity prompts APS to expand elementary 'walk zones'
ARLnow.com
Fewer kids will be able to take the bus when in-person classes resume at Arlington Public Schools. APS says that it is expanding the "walk zones" for 16 of its 24 elementary schools, as buses will only be able to carry 11 students at a time due to social distancing guidelines. "As we start to plan for returning to school buildings, we want to make you aware of some changes to bus transportation starting this year," the school system said in an email to families this morning.
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Survey: 1 in 3 US parents won't get flu shots for their kids
HealthDay News
The coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming flu season could pose a double threat, but many U.S. parents plan to skip flu shots for their kids, a new survey finds. Though public health experts stress the need for people of all ages to get the seasonal flu vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 3 U.S. parents said they don't plan on taking their child for a flu shot this fall. Just a third think having their child get vaccinated is more important than usual this year.
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With hopes fading for another COVID-19 relief package from Washington, educators say they can't survive at current funding levels
The 74
The chances that school districts will see more emergency funding before the end of the year slipped further away as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin seemed unable to reach agreement over another COVID-19 relief package. The Democrats' scaled-down, $2.2 trillion proposal includes $175 billion for K-12 — significantly more than what was in the first version of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions, or HEROES Act. But they were still far apart from the roughly $1.6 trillion, with a total of $150 billion for higher education and K-12, that Mnuchin was proposing.
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When should schools reopen fully in-person?
The Brookings Institution
Over the past several months, schools and colleges across the country have had to make heart-wrenching decisions about whether and how to reopen. Should they have any in-person activities? If so, when? And at what point — and with what adjustments — is it safe to return to fully in-person activities? If there is a flare-up in COVID-19 cases, should we scale back in-person activities? The debates over these questions have become rancorous.
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The Lead Change Group
Of all the skills leaders need to be successful, active listening might be the most overlooked and underrated. Active listening has become even more vital during the global pandemic, as many organizations work in a remote environment. As a result, substantial communication has shifted to virtual platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
READ MORE
Massive leadership challenges
Forbes
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on society and the workplace are coinciding with a renewed quest for racial equity. There are two related dynamics at play for leaders to consider: One is how employees return safely to the workplace while COVID-19 is still active. The choices leaders make today must provide for the employees' basic needs for safety and a level of future security.
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How to overcome the distraction of compassion
Leadership Freak
Distracted leaders are octopods spinning like tornados with sucker-filled tentacles clinging to "important" trivialities. You can't go eight directions at the same time and make meaningful progress. The centrifugal force of distraction drives leaders toward triviality, anxiety and burnout.
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