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.NAPT MEMBER NEWS
We hope you enjoyed our webinar last week
NAPT
We hope you enjoyed our webinar last week with Bruce Landsberg, Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. VC Landsberg has become not only a champion of safe school transportation, he makes topics like Pauli's Exclusion Principle and the Dunning-Krueger Effect understandable, relevant and fun too! If you missed the webinar, feel free to click here for access.
Want to know more of what's going on at NTSB? Then check this out.
Last month, the Board launched a new public-facing database query system for NTSB investigations, safety recommendations and dockets across all of NTSB's investigative modes.
The new system, called Case Analysis and Reporting Online — or CAROL — not only helps users more easily access NTSB data, it also changes the way the NTSB shares its information with other agencies.
Previously, there were three distinct and separate query systems customers could use to access NTSB data: the docket query system, the aviation database query system, and the NTSB safety recommendations query system. But there was no way to submit queries for investigative details or for findings in non-aviation investigations.
CAROL allows users to conduct queries for all modes (rail, pipeline, hazardous materials, marine, highway and aviation) and to move seamlessly through the information. CAROL allows users to quickly find data to questions like, "to what degree are safety management systems, or the lack thereof, a factor in NTSB-investigated accidents across all modes of transportation?"
There is a wide variety of information available. It includes basic information that comes from the circumstances of the event — like the time, date, location, the description of the vehicles and qualifications of the people involved in the event — and any details of the outcome. But then within the docket system, there's interviews, photographs, transcripts of available "black box" recorders and, in some cases, even data that was collected from electronic systems on board. It also contains the safety recommendations derived from each investigation, which may include correspondence back and forth between the NTSB and the recipient of those recommendations.
Development of the CAROL query system has taken a little more than two years with a mandate and funding coming from Congress. All of the more than 15,000 safety recommendations the NTSB has issued since its inception in 1967 are available in CAROL. Investigative data from rail, pipeline, hazardous materials, highway and marine is currently being migrated into CAROL and will continue in the coming months.
One final note — and a fun fact: CAROL is not just an acronym. It is also an homage to Carol Floyd, a data analyst in the Office of Research and Engineering who retired in 2017 after a four-decade career at the NTSB. Well done, people.
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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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School Openings Have Slowed Dramatically in the Last 3 Weeks
NAPT
According to our friends at Burbio, whose School Opening Tracker-Map has become the gold standard, 36.9% of K-12 students in the US are attending "Virtual only" schools, nearly the same as the 37.4% that are attending "Traditional In-person/Every Day" schools. The remaining 25.7% are attending "Hybrid" schools.
"The introduction of in-person learning has slowed dramatically the past three weeks and we are now looking at closures in large districts that will increase the 'virtual-only' number in the coming weeks", says Burbio CEO Dennis Roche.
As of this writing (Sunday, 11/15 at mid-day), NYC schools are still open. If they are shut down, the number of US K-12 students attending "virtual only" schools will increase by roughly 2% in the above numbers and the number of students attending "hybrid" schools will decrease by that amount.
A number of large districts concentrated across the middle part of the US closed to in-person learning last week. Detroit Public Schools, ended in person instruction effective 11/13, as did Des Moines, IA, and Oklahoma City, OK. Toledo, OH, had K-5 in hybrid and moved to all virtual as of 11/13. Many districts across Colorado are moving to virtual immediately with a common refrain in that state being contact tracing backlogs and quarantining rules that prevent in-person instruction. Some districts in Maryland that had only just begun introducing younger students into the classroom went back to completely virtual as well.
Several other large districts will be shifting to virtual over the next two weeks. Santa Fe, NM schools will be virtual-only as of 11/20, as will Aurora, CO. Marion County, IN (Indianapolis + others) is moving to virtual beginning November 23rd. as is Cincinnati, OH. and Rio Rancho, NM. Anoka-Hennepin, MN schools are moving K-5 to virtual on 11/30 after having moved the older students back to virtual earlier in the month, and St Cloud, MN schools are moving to virtual 11/30 as well. Colorado Springs, CO is moving to virtual on 11/30, as is Boise, ID. Late Sunday (11/15) afternoon Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered Michigan high schools to go remote by Wednesday, November 18th for three weeks.
Many districts that had announced reopening plans postponed them. Tucson, AZ postponed its planned in-person opening. Philadelphia, PA and Anchorage, AK postponed plans to introduce K-2 and Minneapolis reversed early stages of in-person instruction while putting all further introductions on hold. Montclair, NJ and Erie, PA postponed in-person introduction with stated intentions of revisiting that decision in the next few weeks.
Some districts, including some larger ones, are still moving ahead with in-person plans previously set in motion. Honolulu, HI, Wake County, NC, sections of Delaware, VA, and MD, and small parts of the Midwest all opened for in-person this week.
According to Roche, "A few weeks ago we noted the issue of 'Community Spread' thresholds to close schools in juxtaposition to growing consensus that schools are not a source of spread of Covid. A further issue we noted last week is rules around quarantining that were affecting school's ability to operate, and this week we saw that issue become much more prevalent. Whether Covid is spreading in the schools becomes a moot point if community spread results in exposure to infected individuals on site, and then results in a number of quarantined staffers that make operating schools in person untenable."
Roche continued, "It is a rapidly evolving situation that is difficult to measure but, in addition to the districts in Colorado who mentioned it this week in their announcements, we are seeing individual schools across our 'open' districts close with even one staff member or students who has had Covid. Different states have different guidance on this issue, and differing levels of Covid, making the entire issue very fluid but it seems to be of increasing importance."
Again, many thanks to our friends at Burbio for this weekly update. We're finalizing the details of a webinar with them, so stay tuned.
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US surgeon general: 'Pandemic fatigue' behind soaring coronavirus cases
Axios
"Pandemic fatigue" is the main reason for the record rises in COVID-19 cases the United States has seen this month, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told NPR in an interview broadcast Saturday. Why it matters: The U.S. is on track for its worst month of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The latest Johns Hopkins data shows the U.S. broke the world record for the number of new cases again on Friday, with 177,224 people testing positive.
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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
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Does your district have students without Internet at home? Equip your buses with WiFi and park them in neighborhoods, apartment complexes, mobile home parks, and school parking lots to create Internet access point amid distance learning. Get started by downloading the Community WiFi Hotspot Guide.
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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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CCSSO eyes possibility of K-12 relief bill during lame duck Congress
Education DIVE
Although there are a lot of issues at play with a change in administrations, perhaps the most pressing one, Zamora said, is for Congress to address a Dec. 11 deadline for a Continuing Resolution, which extended negotiations on the FY 2021 budget plan. That CR level-funded education spending but without another extension or new law, the federal government could face a shutdown, he said.
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Germ-targeting lights installed on school buses
CleanLink
Denver might sit Rocky Mountain high, but the COVID-19 pandemic has the city feeling low. In an effort to protect its most precious cargo from COVID-19, Denver Public Schools is placing disinfecting lights on all of its school buses, reports Fox 31 Denver. Tim Mickey of the McCandles Bus Center told Fox 31 that the "Code 3" lights work by going after microbes and killing the host, causing bacteria, mold and fungi to die. McCandles, which sells buses to school districts throughout Colorado and Wyoming, pitched the idea for adding the lights to the Denver School District.
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Head of Ford autonomy joins other automakers rebuking Tesla's 'Full Self Driving' rollout
Autoblog
As Ford prepares to launch its Mustang Mach-E electric car, the first in its portfolio to take advantage of a new highway semi-self driving suite, its executives are making the case for a cautious approach to autonomy in the personal vehicle space — citing safety as the primary driver behind both developing the technology and keeping it in check. Scott Griffith, who oversees Ford's autonomy and mobility division, made his case on Medium Tuesday in a post unequivocally titled, "Playing it Safe. There is no other way to launch self-driving cars." In this, Ford joins the likes of Daimler, Volkswagen, General Motors and others in what is effectively a repudiation of Tesla's ambitious (and, as some have argued, misleading) public rollout of the "Full Self Driving" variant of its Autopilot system.
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New electric school buses in Virginia and Massachusetts
CleanTechnica (commentary)
Zachary Shahan, a contributor for CleanTechnica, writes: "We will cover basically every electric school bus story that comes across our desk, because it is that important for schools — shuttling around many of our youngest, most vulnerable kids — switch over to clean electric transport as soon as possible. I cannot think of a single vehicle case that should be switching over to electricity quicker than school buses. The good news is that we do currently have some electric school bus news out of Virginia & Massachusetts to share."
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Can the big yellow school bus make it out of the pandemic alive?
The CT Mirror
Julianne Petrillo, writes: "As someone who grew up in Connecticut and someone who rode the big yellow school bus for years, I can't imagine those big yellow buses out of business. When students were transitioned to remote learning, buses remained idle for months. Even though the virus created a budget deficit, state and local governments should have required all Connecticut public schools to pay private bus companies."
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COVID-19 see-saw for parents continues as districts face transportation issues, rising cases
WHIO-TV
As parents continue to grapple with the ever-changing landscape of education in the COVID-19 world, districts are also having to make difficult decisions as cases rise and impact staffing. That's something Troy Superintendent Chris Piper says this week they've had to deal with when several bus drivers were forced off the job for an extended period due to COVID-19. It forced Piper to have to move grades 6 through 12 to online learning.
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School enrollment has dropped by 33,000 students across Tennessee amid pandemic
Chalkbeat
About 33,000 fewer students enrolled in Tennessee public schools this year, down nearly 3.5% from last year and mirroring national trends amid the pandemic. The vast majority of the state's 147 school systems saw unusually large declines during the first 20 days of the academic year, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of statewide enrollment data. Only 15 districts had more students than last year.
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Indianapolis schools ordered to return to virtual learning through Jan. 15
Chalkbeat
Indianapolis health officials ordered K-12 schools Thursday to return to virtual instruction by Nov. 30, canceling in-person instruction until Jan. 15 due to the rise of COVID-19 cases. Marion County's seven-day positivity rate has doubled in the past month to 10.3%, according to Marion County Public Health Department Director Virginia Caine. Coronavirus cases among school-age children have nearly tripled since September, she added. Positivity rates have risen to 18% for high school students, 14% for middle school students, and 8% for elementary students.
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Chronic absenteeism among California elementary students could be surging by more than 200%
The 74
Eleven districts in California are seeing an 89% surge in chronic absenteeism among students in elementary grades compared to last year at this time, according to new data presented to the California Department of Education. That means nearly one in five students has missed 10 percent of school so far this year. But the districts in the sample are part of an initiative to increase attendance and generally have low absentee rates.
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Self-compassion will make you a better leader
Harvard Business Review
It's understandable for leaders to get caught up in fear, doubt, and criticism when facing critical business decisions that will have a major impact on lives and livelihoods. But what's needed in times of uncertainty and disruption is mental clarity, emotional balance, fortitude and vision. To move from self-doubt and paralysis to clarity and action, you need an often-misunderstood skill: self-compassion.
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Critical leadership skills in times of crisis
Training Industry Magazine
What does it take to pivot a business quickly in times of crisis while keeping the employee in mind? Leading with humanity, focusing on inclusive leadership and adopting agile methodologies are critical skills to instill in leadership and across the organization to drive positive change with employees, customers and communities in difficult times.
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5 characteristics of real leadership
Inc.
In this Covid crisis, leaders are faced with changing behaviors as never before. Social distancing, wearing facial masks, restrictions on frequenting bars, restaurants, gyms, (foreign) travel and much more. So, naturally, employees and followers check whether their leaders also walk the talk and show the way. Two weeks ago, the government of the Netherlands imposed heavy restrictions on foreign travel.
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Schools are doing COVID-19 temperature checks: Do they really help?
Eduation Week
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't recommend schools use them. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, called them "notoriously inaccurate." And they can be expensive and time-consuming. Yet more than half of U.S. district leaders say their schools are conducting or plan to do temperature checks for students and employees for in-person instruction as a means of screening for coronavirus infection, according to a nationally representative Education Week Research Center survey conducted last month.
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How to be a thought leader
Forbes
We've heard a lot about thought leaders in recent years. Being known as a thought leader has the potential to draw business to you because you and your business are seen as having answers to people's problems. The best examples of thought leaders are such modern-day Olympians as Jim Collins, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett — the kind of people normal mortals believe can see things they don't see, because, in fact, they often can.
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