9/8/2021

With the first fully in-person school year since Spring 2020, HCPSS is currently facing severe school bus transportation issues that have left many students stranded at their bus stops, reliant upon excessively long bus rides, and/or arriving significantly late to school or home.  Many other surrounding counties are facing similar problems due to a nationwide school bus driver shortage that has left public school system transportation departments significantly understaffed and hastily needing to train many newly recruited drivers.  While this nationwide shortage certainly bears the brunt of the responsibility for HCPSS’s immediate transportation problems, there is a high likelihood that its impact would have been much less severe and more easily mitigated if HCPSS and the Howard County government had heeded certain warnings and implemented more prudent residential development and school transportation policies in recent years.

The already-challenging situation presented to HCPSS by the nationwide school bus driver shortage is undoubtedly compounded by the increased bus route complexities that have resulted from the most recent comprehensive school redistricting plan that relocated over 5400 students.  That plan, approved by the Board of Education in November 2019, controversially broadened the scope of redistricting beyond its historical focus on reduction of school overcrowding to a socioeconomic-based approach that attempted to re-balance schools based on their percentages of Free and Reduced Meal (FARM) student populations. 

This new prioritized social metric for redistricting, while well-intentioned, resulted in thousands more students being redistricted than otherwise would have been necessary to alleviate school overcrowding, particularly at the elementary level.

As a result of this plan, 544 students who had been walkers to their neighborhood schools were turned into bus riders (the equivalent of 9-10 fully utilized new school buses) and many hundreds more students were redistricted far from their nearby schools to a distant school (in some cases not even the second or third closest school), resulting in longer bus rides, more complex routes, and higher overall transportation costs than would have otherwise been needed if the redistricting scope had been limited to reducing school overcrowding.

The present-day HCPSS bus transportation debacle should not be a surprise to any HCPSS or County government leaders.  Thousands of community members knew these problems would arise and testified in opposition to the redistricting plans proposed by Superintendent Martirano and Board of Education member Jen Mallo in 2019, which were void of any serious consideration of how they would impact HCPSS students and parents with additional transportation time and disregarded the long-term impacts of new transportation costs and bus route complexities that were guaranteed to arise.

Many community members raised the alarm about how these plans would lead to long-term and ever-increasing transportation issues, even without a significant bus driver shortage, and that they would waste millions of dollars worth of HCPSS funds on additional transportation costs (since the payment formula for HCPSS bus contracts includes mileage) that could be more effectively and more equitably spent on student supports such as hiring paraeducators or reducing student class sizes.

Over the years, and especially since 2019, countless residents have advocated for practical, long-term and equitable redistricting and county development policies such as keeping student walkers as walkers, building more walking paths & sidewalks around schools,  slowing county residential development to a more sustainable level, redistricting with the predominant goal of relieving overcrowding at specific schools, prioritizing neighborhood schools to the greatest extent possible, implementing a true feeder system, and minimizing the overall number of students relocated by a redistricting plan.

However, instead of being taken seriously and publicly praised for their efforts, many who have advocated for these policies have been ignored, misrepresented and maligned by those in positions of power and baselessly labeled and harassed by local activists & media outlets as anti-development NIMBYs (Not-In-My-Back-Yards), “anti-equity”, racist, classist, selfish and a variety of other toxic pejorative labels.

During a private dinner, Superintendent Martirano and Board of Education member Sabina Taj allegedly referred to opponents to Martirano’s redistricting plan disparagingly as “those people” . 

During her Board of Education re-election campaign, Jen Mallo went so far as to label community members who opposed her bloated redistricting plan as practicing “redlining” around certain HCPSS schools.

When challenged by County Councilman Opel Jones, the constituent clearly stated that she opposed the desire of Superintendent Martirano and some BOE members (Jen Mallo, Sabina Taj, Mavis Ellis, and Kirsten Coombs) to redistrict thousands more students than needed to relieve school overcrowding, because many students would suffer and perform worse academically from the anxiety and fatigue that would result from longer bus rides and less sleep.  Here are some direct quotes from this exchange:

Instead of respectfully considering these thoughtful comments from a well-meaning constituent, Councilman Jones’ proceeded to use his position of power on the dais to publicly misrepresent & subtly mock her, framing her concerns as foolish. 

Unfortunately, this woman’s prescient concerns are now a reality for many HCPSS students, as evidenced by reports coming directly from HCPSS as well as countless stories posted by parents this month on social media and elsewhere about how their children are already suffering from anxiety and fatigue from the new “long-term” transportation issues HCPSS now faces.

Instead of reflecting on this failure, HCPSS Superintendent Martirano went on to apply for personal awards, such as the “Leaders to Learn From” award.  In similar irony, many of the same Board of Education members and community activists who championed and pushed through this devastating school redistricting plan are now themselves passionately advocating for changes to school start times, since they recognize the health and academic benefits that result from students getting more sleep.

As the Howard County community grapples with the current school bus staffing shortages, it is critical to reflect on avoidable problems that led to and/or severely exacerbated this situation.  The immediate and long-term transportation problems that HCPSS now faces lay squarely at the feet of Superintendent Martirano and all of the HCPSS Board of Education members and other County government leaders, political activists, special interest groups and members of the local news media who have persistently dismissed, mocked and publicly maligned anyone who has advocated for slower, more sustainable and infrastructure-focused county growth and anyone who has insisted that school redistricting be kept as minimally disruptive as possible and focused predominantly on reducing school overcrowding.

The school transportation and overcrowding challenges Howard County is facing today are only going to increase over time.  As HCPSS proceeds to address the current school bus system issues and considers future redistricting planning, the Board of Education and County government leadership need to seriously reflect on and systemically evaluate the negative impacts that have resulted from such avoidable mistakes as the well-intention, yet disastrously misguided and shortsighted 2019 school redistricting and the County government decisions that have led to years of unsustainable residential overdevelopment that has outpaced the construction of complementary infrastructure (e.g. new schools, hospitals, roads etc.).

What’s needed are long-term strategies that will reduce school bus transportation costs and complexity and improve the lives of all students and parents.  The following are some recommendations:

With serious consideration of the above policies and reasonable and respectful cooperation between Howard County government and school system leaders, it should be possible to slowly-but-surely reduce the transportation and overcrowding problems that HCPSS now faces, better utilize Howard County taxpayer dollars, and significantly improve the lives of HCPSS students and families.

For your reference, the contact information for Superintendent Martirano and the current Board of Education members is shown below.  Every HCPSS family — especially those who have been affected by this current crisis and other crises over the past 5 years — should *regularly* contact the Superintendent and their Board of Education members to share their personal experiences, thoughts and concerns and insist on more responsible, forward-thinking, leadership: