Power surge throws Schalmont bus drivers a curve

The veteran bus drivers at Schalmont Central School District know their routes, but some of the fresher faces behind the wheel rely on printed maps.

“They know the routes,” Joseph Lenz, the school district’s business administrator, said. “It’s those new drivers that are having the most difficult time.”

That’s because about two weeks before the first day of school Wednesday, the Schenectady-based Transfinder software that produces those maps was zapped. District staff have scrambled to equip drivers with the route information they need to get kids to school and back safely and efficiently.

“Thank you for your patience today as we work hard to rectify any issues regarding your child’s bus transportation,” the district said in a statement posted on its website and Facebook page Wednesday, the first day of school. “We have brought in extra staff to assist with scheduling, routing and any additional problems that might occur as a result of the power surge that caused us to lose all our transportation data.”

Some parents took to the Schalmont Facebook page to thank the district for keeping them informed and working to address the problem, while others shared their concerns, prompting responses from the district encouraging them to call the new transportation supervisor, Joe Hilts.

“8:10 am, second morning that the bus for the grade school stopped and blew the horn for child in middle school,” one parent said.

“Any chance we will get a more realistically time? 7:30 made no sense for Jefferson pick up,” said another.

The source of the surge has not been determined, said Lens, but he said the phenomenon of having too much power come through a power line can be caused by a lightning strike or a blown transformer.

The surge hit the server at the bus garage on Duanesburg Road and knocked out all of the route data, which was not backed up on the cloud or otherwise offsite, Lenz said.

“There was one server with multiple drives in it, so the information was backed up onto another hard drive within the same server,” he said.

The district is considering backing up the date on the cloud or in another physical location, he said. He said the district already backs up other data, such as student data, offsite.

Superintendent Carol Pallas said the bus routes had all been completed for the year when the surge hit, “so we had to start again from scratch.” Kevin Mercoglan, who retired as transportation supervisor after the last school year, was brought in to help because the new supervisor, Hilts, is still learning the roads, she said.

Transfinder, the software company the district uses to create the maps, also assisted in reconfiguring the routes, she said.

Pallas said the routes are close to being finalized, and by Monday students and parents will see no difference.

“The kids are getting to and from school on time, and we really haven’t seen major issues,” she said, “so I really give a lot of credit to our transportation department and the people that have helped out. They really did work together as a team, and I think honestly this week doesn’t feel that much different than any typical first week, despite the added glitch.”

Added Lenz, “We’re getting kids picked up, but there are sometimes more efficient ways to get them picked up than the routing software figures out.”

In the statement, the district said pick-up and drop-off times could be slightly different from what was printed on postcards mailed to parents, “especially during the first week of school when our drivers take extra time getting to know students and making sure everyone is accounted for and on the right bus.”

“Honestly, it’s been going pretty smoothly,” Lenz said. “We have a practice in place of sending out postcards to parents before the school year starts. That has helped a lot because if parents noticed any irregularities or timing seems to be off, they proactively did call in, so that allowed us to get all of the things worked out before school started.”

The Schalmont Central School District covers 75 square miles and runs 40 morning, 7 mid-day and 40 afternoon bus routes, according to the district. About 1,880 public school students as well as private and parochial students ride the bus daily.

Categories: News