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The bus stops here, where does the buck stop?
BY Elizabeth Prata

Gray-The SAD 15 Board meeting Wednesday, October 1 drew a heavy crowd, and not many of those people were happy. Leigh Sullivan of Gray Country Day Care spoke during Citizen Comments against the District's policy regarding transportation and bus clustering.

.Below, Sullivan checks off daily attendance and speaks to the bus driver, while a queue of cars lines up on Rt. 100. Sometimes up to 22 cars wait while kids disembark.

Sullivan opened a new Day Care in Gray, and during the summer she had asked the District what their policy was regarding when and where bus stops are determined. There was a Dance Studio on the same property as her day care and the bus had been using the facility as a stop and a turnaround for three years. She was been assured that that procedure would continue.

During the summer, Sullivan said, Transportation Department Director Tom Emmertz and Business and Finance Director Brian McDonnell had decided not to cluster that stop any more and would instead pick up and deliver the children on State Route 100, 250 feet from the day care facility. If Sullivan wanted the bus to drive in to the turnaround, it would cost $1.90 per day, she was told.

Sullivan asserted at the Board meeting that the fee, although legal by State Statute, was punitive in nature toward her, and that questions regarding the why the stop was being dropped fee were not answered by the two Directors. "After I went to the State to get answers regarding the fee the Director of Finance and Operations took it personally and said that my facility was no longer eligible for the cluster stop."

Sullivan lodged a formal complaint against both the Transportation Department Director and the Finance and Operations Director regarding how her transportation inquiry was handled.

She said that the transportation sub-committee held a meeting and went into executive session and excluded her from attending the session, that the Finance Director behaved inappropriately ans subsequently sent her a writeen apology, that the committee did not take into account new information that Sullivan had presented, that she was not allowed to ride on the bus during the site visit the District arranged, and that the naming of her parking lot as an 'unpaved private road' as the reason to cease clustering is not consistent with other unpaved roads that the District uses as a cluster stop. She also said that her transportation request was never acted on at the Board level, only at the sub-committee, which, by policy, only recommends action, not votes on it.

Mary Conklin Blenk, an employee of the day care, also spoke against the District's handling of the bus stop request. She said that the inconsistent answers they received were examples of poor performance on the District's part. "The stop was okayed in the summer, then they said it was OK if we paid a fee, then they said forget the fee, it is now a safety issue. The lack of documentation leaves a question in my mind and Leigh's mind that this is based on real facts." She lodged a formal complaint as well.

Sullivan's sister Tammy Brown asked the Board, "Why was the stop safe for three years while the Studio was there an now it is deemed unsafe?"

The Board listens to, does not respond, to citizen comments during this portion of the agenda. Chair Dan Maguire's only comment was to insist that the complainants use the title of the office and not the names of the personnel. He explained that should the issue ever go to a personnel matter in executive session that the persons being mentioned would have the right to be present and defend themselves.

The Finance and Operations Director was out on leave and could not be reached for comment. Attempts to connect with the Superintendent for comment were unsuccessful.