El to do something different anyway um and I think that's an important question to know the answer to what really is the you know what really is the perspective and opinion of those impacted um is something that's sort of on my mind and then I think along the way um we hear lots of questions about like um the policies around how far um we will bus um I drive by the high school somewhat regularly at about the time kids are already supposed to be in class and there's still like an endless stream of cars dropping kids off and I do wonder how anybody gets to school on time because the number of cars going in and out drop you know clearly dropping people off is pretty staggering um which suggests that we're not providing transportation in some capacity so I think the goal is just for us to think about like what kind of survey we could provide that would help us start to get some like answers Gra founded in the people who use the services um to really think about like what are the problems whether they're solved by a new contract or they're more immediately solvable and like how do we how do we have some facts to move forward with so that was the goal of this whole effort um to begin with but I did see earlier today that the district launched a smart roots to school survey and I was curious um if anybody could tell us about that and and what it's what the questions are and who gets the data and what the goals are because I think that does complicate anything we're going to do here like we can't put out two Transportation surveys in you know hot succession and and expect that people are not going to be confused by that so um when we ultimately get to talking about like what goes in the survey and timing um I think that'll be important so I don't know if anybody could tell us a little bit about what that survey is even all about that one today Dr Cushing are you able to um respond to member Graham's question um he has been involved with um safe roots to school so um let me just try calling him to see jump back on thank you and if he can't my wife has been involved with this group so I can speak to it and I've spoke with Ellery as well but I'd love to hear where the district is coming from on this but it is a three question survey I can pull it up actually oh okay I literally just saw it as I was signing in and I was like yeah I had I had reached out to the safe roots to schools people um to say hey is there anything you'd want us to keep in mind and they said oh actually this thing that has been kind of chugging along slowly is is set to launch tomorrow so it was yeah so the the survey itself is run by safe routs to schools which is a Statewide group that does local advocacy and assessments um and it is a very basic survey right so if wait you did you you click on where you live whoops and then you answer questions about your child how do you get to school how do you get from school uh and this is it so it's not comprehensive I know this I know this group is interested in getting more data about what stop people from walking from active Transportation walking biking rolling this but this survey is just this assessment I believe it goes to the state the state organization of safe roots to schools they do the data and um okay provide a report okay um I have the report from the Roberts from 2018 it used to be done by school and I think they're pretty excited Kitty uh about uh having a comprehensive approach from the district on this but it's really focusing on alternative transportation okay that is super helpful thank you member reinfeld so I thought um what we could do today is use the time that we have to start to brainstorm and think about like sort of the questions that we have that we would want to have vetted um by the survey and to the extent that we can you know craft any questions that we have and then perhaps uh Megan and I can work offline to sort of flush out a draft to bring back to this group at a future meeting um and so I have a a l literal blank piece of paper here that I'm happy to share and we can and we can walk through um and just do some brainstorming until it can sort of evolve into something um a little bit more formalized if that works for the group yeah okay I'm going to share my screen um okay you all see my screen yes okay um okay so I think um you know sort of one thing that we probably want to be clear about is our questions to answer um via the survey and then um the other thing is you know what survey questions are we thinking we'll ask so um my typing always goes downhill when I'm sharing my screen uh okay so I would um be happy to hear from any of you if you I have some thoughts but I will yield my thoughts to the group if anybody has anything they want to throw out there um so I did just um Google for some examples of Transportation surveys for school districts um this one has 21 questions which I am just reading right now um there are questions about um the bell schedule which is interesting to have as part of that survey I can't see the answers because it's the drop the dropdowns have presumably lots of options but it is a survey that is closed so they won't let you drop down and see what's behind there um you know there's questions about uh the you know Transportation experience positive surprising that kind of stuff um I also put into the chat the safe roots to schools I I believe this is a sample of what their actual um report looks like um and it does have as as member reinfeld pointed out it's very basic you know when people are using it is sort of what I'm getting at getting is um how do people get to school percentages days of the week the morning and the afternoon um and um oh interestingly they have a thing about weather conditions which is good you know if we plant everything around everybody bikes and the entire system falls apart because it doesn't isn't always biking weather for instance that could be a problem um I think remember reld yes one meta question I have is whether we're looking to have an assessment and understand the what are the obstacles to participating in District provided Transportation or alternative methods versus what could the district do differently that would shift your transportation Behavior because those are kind of two different approaches to asking the questions yeah I think that's a a good question and I think the other thing on my mind is um we need to I think in terms of like how we get responses we we need to know like at Baseline each person who's answering the survey how do they get to school today and does that meet their needs and if it doesn't like which like what is it that they would identify as the thing that would meet their needs right so like as an example like my ninth grader walks to school and that meets my needs because we live a half of you know like less than a half a mile from the high school I might feel differently if my ninth grader walked to school but we lived two miles from the high school which technically means she's supposed to walk to school and I might say in that case like I my kid walks to school but it does not meet my needs and I would like the district to provide transportation so that she doesn't have to walk to miles to school right so I think like understanding sort of H how how it works today for the respondents and whether that meets their needs or not um and if it doesn't like what would I think is an important um way to think about how we want to drive out these questions um and I think it maybe is both of those things member reinfeld like maybe it is like is it that I need the district to do something different or I need to do something different like what you know is it that there's some barrier that's not allowing me to do the thing that I want to do or is it simply like I need a yellow bus to come pick up my kid in order for me to say that this meets my needs um and I think we're going to get a whole bunch of different answers but when it relates to like students the high school students in particular I think one question you know I would sort of want to dial in on is like if they are using a bus to get to school today what kind of bus are they using and like does that meet their needs and if it doesn't what would um which might help us understand like the MBTA question around like what are the preferences um of the students riding and their families for that matter um so that we can uh respond accordingly you know and consider like what that means for us um I'm gonna share this document so is this being created in your personal Gmail or in the school okay just check no I hate that um I also I think that as you were just speaking I was wondering about whether or not you know looking at the survey safe safe roots to school survey this appears to be a survey to parents and I think that's an important group to ask we have questions for parents caregivers um but I I feel like there's needs to be questions to the users the students as well um especially for the high school um and I feel like they're very different kinds of questions um oh it is okay and high school students thank you Tom um good you know looking at their data though I I I'm I'm frankly nervous like they have each day the morning and the afternoon Transportation the data broken up by each of those which is 10 different things which of course makes sense to want that um it's just uh it's a lot of data and I I'm hopeful we don't have to replicate any that we have coming out of Safe roots to school survey like hopefully we can scratch it off the list instead of asking those questions again well I'm not convin well first of all I'm not convinced that we would even have access to that data in a ra form right like this is I mean I suppose we could ask for it but more than likely we're going to get a report right that provides I I think we're gonna have to ask some maybe some questions more than you know again because I think we would want to be able to attribute them within our own data set right right yep um and and Megan I'm so glad that you're able to join us I I know that you and I have talked about this a few times like over the course of time but um I'm curious um you know based on what your office feels in terms of questions about Transportation like what's on your mind as we think about like what people what information we need to get from people oh you can't unmute hold on oh did it go yep hi okay there we go um so I mean we certainly so I you know I am right in the middle of it because I know what can be done with the resources as they exist and then what the policies say so if we were to change some of the policies to meet some of the the unmet demands of the families we wouldn't be able to meet those policy demands now because we don't have the infrastructure for it so this bus driver shortage thing is so real however um I'm with you Jenny that like the hardest part was we we cracked down a little bit on the policy distances and we got rid of some bus stops that were especially at the elementary school level we got rid of some bus stops that were inside the one mile Mark so we weren't obligated by policy to bus those students and then the families just you know they got Savvy and they just walked up to the next bus stop and it was like 30 kids and so you know I Was preparing myself to crack down on those 30 kids but I was thinking specifically about which families they were what neighborhood they come from and and what the the sort of PR Fallout of having such a huge group all at once would be so I mean I know that that's that's that's you know a lot of kind of anecdotal parts of the details but it's an important part for this group to be thinking about um but I think that what I would see a lot of is to rethink those policies because they are too far and um we as a district and and I'm committed to doing this this summer need to also commit to kind of rebuilding Community to talk to them about how to not be super scared of walking to school so luckily the new um manager at Eastern bus and I we have just a sort of plan in place for this summer um that we're gonna she's gonna D we're going to drive all the roots together and she's going to make them more efficient and we're going to make them to policy so that we're not you know taking too many kids that are not eligible and I'm going to reach out and talk to families in the in the neighborhoods that have historically been kind of like getting on the bus but they're not eligible to and offer meetups I'm G to work with uh the med family Network where it's appropriate to offer meetups to be like let's all walk to school together and this is where um I'd like to you know work with ellerie ellerie reached out to me and I haven't had a chance to get back to her about sa frots to school to to find out what resources we have to do this it's sort of a teaching people how to walk to school which sounds funny that we need to be so explicit about it but we do and you know sort of introducing people like this is who you would walk with and it's okay you can trust your kids with these people to walk to school so I don't know that's that those are a lot of kind of anecdotal stories but that's what I'm constantly in you know working between the you know the push of family saying it's too far for my kids to walk so I need a seat on the bus and the bus is all being overcrowded because there's a driver shortage so even students that are eligible there aren't enough seats and so the buses become unsafe you know and the push back that I want to give to say we need to build some Independence in the kids and start walking with them um so that's where we are with that um but as far as at the high school level adding yellow buses at the high school uh that I've just done informal surveys with those students I would love to see a formal survey with actual student voice to find out how they feel about that because I think that if we went to the expense of adding the yellow buses for the for all of the high school students that are eligible for them um we would have a lot of empty buses hi Lucy I'm sorry I'm on a zoom call um we would have a lot of yellow buses that were you know barely full and it would be very expensive in fact I did the math once and said that it would be cheaper for us to give to pay for all of the MBTA M cards for every student in the high school than it would be to have the 14 required yellow buses to um to bus every kid um now again I don't know how many of the kids would use those so that would be a waste the other part about this is what a waste of money it feels like because when we were paying for MBTA buses for students we could tell that a lot of weren't even using them so we were spending $30 on a month for students for the just in case one day a week that they might use it but otherwise they were getting a ride from their friends or they were driving themselves or they were getting it from their parents um so that didn't that was just painful to watch all that money kind of fly out the window so I think that the high school survey would be very valuable very interesting to see and their parents you know because we just got an email today from a parent saying that she's very uncomfortable with her student driving in cars with friends and that he does take the yellow us and so I think the parents voice needs to be in that survey as well yeah yeah um and then Megan I know the the questions or the concerns probably are different at different levels right like at El Elementary I I would expect to see lots of different kinds of feedback um than at middle school and at high school um so I'm curious if there are other questions like what else do we want to know about um in terms of our our bus ridership I guess I'll say our transportation that we haven't talked about so far um and one thing that comes to mind is like some explicit questions about late busing and so I know you know over the years that's even been a question at the elementary school level like there have been a handful of instances where we've provided yellow late buses to programs at the elementary school although it always struck me as like a one-off thing that was sort of happening um the yeah the only one I know about that was when we had Esser funding and we were doing sort of uh tutoring like Esser the ketchup catchup tutoring for elementary school and so we provided transportation for that right right and so um but I think late busting in general um is a question that we should probably try to get the answer to I know I've heard like and I sort of wondered about this for forever my middle schooler does after school sports they're very scheduled they're totally predictable they start after the late bus leaves the the Middle School like it feels a little bit insane that we would um have a school sponsored activity and we would intentionally start it after trans Transportation options exist um for the kids so that's you know I think when I think of the late bus I think of that um like my kids because when they're in middle school they ride past the high school they report about overcrowding on days where there's middle school athletes going from the the Middle School to the high school um I hear the same thing about the library which is a hot spot for Middle School dating um which always makes me giggle but so there's like sort of hot spots around the city that you know sort of flare up at different times of the day um that I think are worth sort of pursuing as well um in this uh I see somebody from is that Peter is that you with your hand in the air it is um I was thinking that one question might be specifically around what you were saying the late bus tier some districts do have two tiers of late buses now realizing that's an additional cost um but they have say like a 3:30 late bus and then maybe a 6:30 or a 6 o'cl late bus once activities after school things of that nature are done uh so that might be an additional question to ask I think another thing that needs to be very clearly articulated is that the survey needs to be filled out for each individual student not each individual family especially if they have multiple at per schools I don't know if that was stated I also just spoke with uh our rep from safe RS to school uh she's going to ask if the um if the rod if we can have access to the RW data it is normally a report shared with the principal but she will ask if we can have access to the raw data right great M reinfeld so I will note that member Russo and several other members sat in on the student advisory committee uh stud student advisory council meeting last week and they raised some challenges with um the busing some of it was around how it is implemented at the schools in terms of stopping points and lines um and crowding and time and some of it was around timing um which was this the high school high school okay yeah so I I would Echo what member Russo said earlier that getting student feedback certainly at the high school level and I think the Middle School level as well I think my question is to what extent is this survey about the quality of the experiences of the services being provided versus the um the the which Services should be provided and are going to be used because you know the things that we keep hearing about about overcrowding on the buses or lack of bus monitor or vaping on the Middle School Bus those sorts of questions as you say distinguishing fact from fiction how prevalent are these issues I I saw Megan's hand go up so yeah just because my my only fear about asking for an evaluation of the you know the quality of the service would just be opening up a ramp cave you know so that's that would be my worry and and and especially because we know why we have a explanation for why some of the things are not working well it's it's partly this driver shortage um you know and so if we didn't know and everything was working the way it was we were fully staffed everything was great and then people told us like no it's not exactly what we want I think that would be more valuable but like right now to say the the the buses are overcrowded or the the bus drivers are grumpy when we're in a position where we can't really address we we can't afford to fire anybody um so I think I think my question there is to is it can we phrase those things in terms of obstacles are people not putting their kids on the bus because of X Y or Z reason so I think that phrasing is useful remember so yes I think um I certainly understand um Megan's concern nobody really wants a report that says my God everything's terrible um especially when we first of all I'm not a saying thing everything is terrible but when we know there are problems and we know what they are and we know the solution and right now that is not solvable um I do think there's value however in understanding it because it provides us with a priority list you know when we decide how to spend money um which we don't have enough of um I think knowing you know if if 92% of all students who ride our transportation think it's the worst thing that's ever they've ever experienced in their lives um that's different than 20% complaining um and it'll help us understand in the context of other services that in the district that we don't provide or can't provide or might be cutting or whatever else um so and um you know I think one thing about the survey in general that worries me is um like other surveys we have done such as our superintendent search which is the one that is most prevalent in my mind um because I did the the uh survey not alone but um is we really struggle with Outreach is an understatement the the people that responded to the superintendent search to say they were not a slice of Medford a representative slice of Medford is the biggest understatement I could possibly ever say and so I mean I appreciate all of their feedback and we got a very good number but like the number one income level for people that responded was over $250,000 and that is not the average of um so I worry about how we can get a meaningful set of responses um so that we are first of all not skewing the data so much into just people with a grudge um which is always a concern um but I also you know the the late School Bus stuff that was just brought up you know that I don't know how many times I can tell my story but some of the faces on this screen Chang so but you know I lived in a rural District I was the furthest student from the school the furthest student um and to say it was well over an hour each way every day was no exaggeration and there were no late buses at all and I participated in exactly zero after school activities my entire 7 through 12 education because it was a 7 through2 high school so I think you know certainly my strong preference is that we pray prti stuff like that because um now granted this is not rural New Hampshire with 13 towns going to one school Far Far Away um it is definitely a different situation and there might be Alternatives um but I'm just very sensitive to our students not participating in activities because transportation is the reason they can't um and how we get at those students and get those answers I I I don't know but I think that should definitely be a priority because um because I they're the people who are not necessarily getting served at all may I share a map of our school radiuses sure all right um so these are our schools oh my toolbar is in the way um there goes right and so this is within half a mile and then the lighter shading is one mile and then these dotted lines are the three miles so particularly when we're looking right Fon Heights I know we do a bus at the high school here but we've also got a lot of um outside the radius for the high school and a lot of these neighborhoods um are a particular demographic and so there's a there's a huge Equity issue and understanding I I love Megan's idea of reaching out specifically um to families right the elementary schools have this have these radi but even some of that is not being captured in this and then there's also I think the stigma issue that needs to be talked about right riding a bus the kids who are able to park is parking free for high school students yes okay um but that of course requires owning a car or having access to a car um and so I don't know to what extent stigma is informing you know we can ask about how would your behavior change if we made these changes but some of it is not some of it is really rooted in you know what even if you give me these buses I wouldn't take them or even if I I knew how to walk to school I wouldn't or my my family my parent drives past the school every day and so they drop me off and I'm never going to switch to something else so what we're hoping to accomplish is there an ideal situation that we want to achieve here or is it just um I yeah I think in my mind if we can craft the questions correctly like we can ask people about what they do today and is it is it their preference and if it's not why not like so that we can acknowledge that like not everybody has the same like my mom drives by the high school every day and she's gonna drop me off and that's that's my preferred way to get there right like I'm fine with that and I if you sent me if you sent a yellow bus to my driveway I wouldn't take it because I'm gonna get in my mom's car and she's gonna drop me off right versus like I don't have a parent that can drop me off and so I walk a mile to school every day like I think those are different things and I I think individually like right it's impossible to make everybody happy but I think if you can get enough response to the survey so back to outreach um if you can get enough response to the survey you can see Trend and you can see like sort of global preferences right um and that data might be useful in order for us to be able to say you know what like the high school kids have no issues at all with the NBTA buses bringing them to and from school what they care about is that they're late for example like maybe they care maybe they don't care what the bus looks like but they care that they can get to school on time right and so I'm fine with the I'm fine with the MBTA but it makes me late every day and that and that was that was actually their complaint that they're two buses and they're crowded and yeah so I think there's like a lot of different like you know when you talk about like what works for people like what works for people works for them and not necessar for anybody else but I mean there is a finite number of like versions of what exists versus what we would like it to be and I think we could see if we can get enough participation like I think we could see something that informs like are we trying to expand the number of buses we have and by how many um for example or by none like maybe the survey says like none is the right answer um I don't know Peter did you have your hand in the air yeah I do uh quick question remember reinfeld what year I wasn't able to see what year was that data from on those um radii that is a great question let me find it again okay and the only reason I ask is we are actually working um with the city and safe fruits to update those so I can provide as soon as we have it I can provide them uh we've sent the the addresses in uh with no identifying information uh to do that so we are working on that right now uh the other thing too just to consider when it comes to parking is you know there may be a project in there will be a project in the next few years that may significantly limit high school parking and so it's just something as we're considering Transportation moving forward you know the the effects of reduced student parking potentially in the future I was actually going to um bring that up uh Peter in a slightly different way but um you know aside from the the probable need to have less parking available assuming that the high school is done where it is now um there's there's also the need to understand when we you know if we are building a whole new high school how much parking lot are we building I don't suspect the MBA actually will have an answer for that um in some formula but they may have a formula for like minimums or something but that we probably have more than is normal um just because of the lot we have right now so understanding if we end up having to have less parking how much less can we have before it becomes a a real problem um you know because um I also the parking is for me is about the you know the ins and outs of the high school getting your kid in and out for parents and for buses um and for students that are driving um you know the current setup is of course everybody can agree is terrible um and whether or how much we think about and care about that in a new design it kind of matters like if we were to change the pattern and make it work beautifully would we suddenly have far more people driving their kids to school will we have far more students trying to park um you know th those that kind of a change if it was not so painful I think there might be more people who are like I'll just drop you off at school um because I know that there like on Wildwood across from the high school like people are lying up there early I'm sometimes one of them um and we won't even go up to the high school because it's so awful um and so yeah no understanding what people might want to do like I feel like there there is two things here the evaluation of what they have but then there's sort of the Blue Sky if let's pretend we were building a Medford High from scratch and we didn't have students and we were just creating a high school from the beginning what would people want which isn't necessarily what they would do but um I don't feel like we know that at all um I think the other thing that I hear about often well and usually like at the beginning of the year is that there are times where our Reliance on MBTA buses is like misaligned with what service they're going to provide right so like when we um when we start school in August right like it's like oh we don't have service those days sorry guys get yourselves to school some other way um so I think the other sort of thing I'm interested the I think my other interest in in doing the survey is to be able to present a like a really full picture of Transportation in the district and you know uh like dispel the fiction right wherever it exists and describe like what we do and why so for example like I'm under the impression I could be totally wrong that we don't have we don't have late start snow days because the MBTA buses aren't going to get our kids to school if we put a two-hour delay on I could be completely wrong about that I have no idea um that's what I've always heard I think that's what I tell people if they ask me but we ALS Al like I think need to be able to um sort of like lay out like here's what we do Transportation wise and why so that we own our story so like n Megan my like my sort of immediate reaction to you saying like we know what the problems are was think my thought was like I don't think anybody knows that you know what the problems are like I I I don't think the community thinks that at all like I don't think they think we have a handle on it at all um and that is like you know Medford dies hard around being disorganized um so I think if we have answers to these questions this is also an opportunity for us to say here's what the data tells us about this survey and like here's like a level set of what we do and why and like what we're already working on so like I think you're working on lots of great things I just don't think anybody knows about it and it's always a timing issue right like when do you tell people that you're working on something and I think we have a lot of history around like misfiring on that timing question you know in all kinds of ways but this could be an opportunity for us to say like as we go forward here's what we're looking at and and we have a set of recommendations based on the data and our current practice and the the recommendation is we're going to change the you know the one mile radius to one and a half miles or we're going to change the 2 m radius to one mile like whatever those things are that we're going to decide out of this like this is an opportunity for us to strategically say like this is the need this is what we have and this is where this is like this is what we think we should do over the next X years and that's how we're going to go forward with a plan um around you know all things Transportation I think the other question I have is like how do we wrap in um all the transportate like the individualized transportation that the district provides because I think that's an important aspect to all of this is to make sure we understand that piece of it too um and how you know what the set of questions are around that individualized Transportation um whether it's to um schools within our district or schools that are out of District like what you know we have to sort of craft some questions about that as well for the impacted individuals who who take that kind of transportation from the district um Megan did you have a question or hand up no here you go okay there we go thanks um no I was uh let me go back and think if I can remember it um yeah I I I would love to have the a sort of place to sort of I don't know if it's airing dirty laundry but sort of give our reasons our stories um and um but like because nobody has nobody likes to hear the answer of well there's a driver shortage it's unbelievable people are like so what that's your problem make it happen tell the company that they've got to figure it out and I'm like the company is working with us so closely and she calls me every time she's got a new person that they're training and she calls me every time that there's somebody that they had to let go for like safety reasons that we all support so but but for strategic planning I agree with you and we should be planning it not like like assuming it's going to get better um and I do like the ideas of the survey I I've T I want to walk back my thoughts on not evaluating it because I do hear what you're saying um do you guys need me to close this door is it too noisy no we can't hear it at all okay good um to walk back back because I do hear um see the value in knowing whether the reason people aren't using it is because they've heard of these bad things about it because that would be important or they've they've heard or there's a discomfort about it I think that that would be valuable information to know that more people would be using it um so I just wanted to say that part too there was something else but I I'm sorry I got distracted by the no it's okay the fun thank you bye Jerry um um you know um yesterday I believe Framingham uh Public Schools voted to take all transportation in house and because of apparently they need 77 drivers but they have 54 um which to say that creates problems I just can't even fathom how does anybody even get to school at all um and now that Jerry's not on the call um I'm kidding I mean I would have said it if he was on the call still but you know when we talk about driver shortages we really are also not talking about driver shortages there are enough human beings to drive buses um and um enough human beings that would be willing to drive buses but not for the wages that bus companies pay um but when I think about what they're doing over in Framingham these are probably going to be a unionized group they're going to have benefits and retirement and they're going to get paid a boatload more than that than any bus company was ever going to pay them and I'll bet they won't have as much trouble finding any bus drivers so so um you know I realize this particular fiscal year is probably not the year to have that conversation but uh the bus driver shortage is not a real thing it is a madeup thing because we refuse to pay people a reasonable wage um we have a bus driver shortage when McDonald's has to shut down because they can't get workers but they don't shut down so there are workers um and I'm not trying to this is not an attack on new Megan or anything I I understand that's how this is talked about but I think it's just really important to to talk about it as it really is um we somehow want people and it's the same with the after school conversation there there are people who could work those jobs if we were willing to actually provide it benefits and retirement and enough pay that's a reality I mean come on we all know that um so framing can's doing this uh it'll be very interesting to see how works and I realize financially they're a very different District I think student Opportunity Act has been kind to them um and so they may well in fact be flushed with cash to be able to do something like this um that we couldn't do right now um the other thing though is you know I sign the warrants and I see what we pay to transport our students out of District um we pay per student more than we pay assistant superintendence like $6,000 $8,000 per student go to school 20 days a month um so and actually I don't know if that works out to being what the pretend to make assistance we pretend it makes but um my point is just that's far more than we would ever pay a unionized retirement eligible and benefits eligible person to do that work far more um and so you know I I get that there's there's no there's not a lot of time and a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy and money to talk about getting ahead of it it's like it's like you're always a day behind on this kind of thing oh we have a student we got to transport well you're not going to like okay let's post a job for a new person to come and become our driver and like no the person has to be trans the student has to be transported tomorrow morning starting tomorrow um and so how do we get ahead of that because I don't know the exact numbers but we spend a shocking amount of money on out of District transportation that and there is just I mean without a spreadsheet in front of me there's like no way we cannot do that for less if we just hire people ourselves take the hit put them in the you know pension and salary and all that other stuff there's just no way that it's cheaper and it also is a huge amount of effort for our staff to be on the constant treadmill of trying to find a new person to you know find a company that's willing to transport a student it it some of that stuff doesn't make a lot of sense to me um and it's some of this is this isn't really about the survey though I don't think because a lot of this stuff it's about sort of what do you do with the survey afterwards right which is okay I think that's fine yeah I think that's a good point is like you know we're going to get data from from students we're data from parents but we already Al have a lot of data of our own that is very relevant to this um and I appreciate the electrification of dat was just put there because then I will have to say it um did the students at the student advisory council meeting have other Transportation related things to talk about yeah they had they so they raised five concerns and I just need to find that tab that has it um so there five concerns where did it go wait nope that's your document this one's my document all right was um where did it go I have it right here yeah was the student safety in the bus lines the de setting designated arrival and departure P positions to reduce crowding more buses for North Medford and other underserved areas uh the route 101 was running every five and 10 minutes and it wasn't consistent as to when the arrival time was and wasn't time to accommodate people staying late so that's your late bus question and then the 95 either comes very early very late the early bus is very crowded the late bus doesn't get people to their jobs on time remember Russo did I miss anything you did not um okay so I think we have a lot of what I think we have a lot of questions to answer in the context of the survey yeah well I think I think a potential setup right is just the Baseline what do you do now um what would you like to do or you know do we do we have questions about getting fewer people taking buses more bike pool More Walk pools but what do you do now what would you do if the options were there for you and what are the obstacles to getting to those ideals whether it's walking biking buses car pools parking I think that is how this is shaking out for me in assessing what you do what would you anticipate doing and I want to recognize Megan's point that there's some education around that I think we could absolutely aim to have fewer cars in the school drop offs and pick up lines um that's going to be some education there's going to be some resistance in the community but understanding what the barriers are for walking biking car pools busing um is important so where you're going and then specifically what the obstacles are or as I asked in the beginning of the call what could we do to facilitate your ideal situation but I think obstacles is probably the way to go on that yeah that's what people are experiencing is they're saying oh I'm not doing this because X Y or Z okay uh remember so we also did hear actually um I didn't write it in my notes but uh I remember it now from the meeting um students um I don't know how many but some students are not biking to school because the city made the decision to not do the um the safe protected bike Lanes thank you protected bike Lanes so you know that was a decision the city made to allow for some parking spots um and the consequences are that there are more people um getting other ways I I don't sense that the people who are would have been biking to school are instead getting on the bus they probably have a parent dropping them off and so um you know when the city makes decisions like that there are consequences um and I think that we have to remember that again getting back to the the project that is the big project in this that's happening um you know that there are intersections between the city's decisions and and our goals because I think having many kids biking to school would be great I don't want to have many kids I frankly don't want to have many kids biking to school if we once a year have to go to a funeral so um you know that's the blunt reality of not having protected lanes and I wouldn't let my kids ride a bike to school um for whatever for whatever it's worth the city um I spoke to Todd Blake city engineer um and they're saying they're in the process of mapping the school addresses of students who take the bus and kind of looking at which roads are getting the traffic and what kind of shape they're in so there's there's some coordination with the city once we have these results as well but they're interested in understanding that especially since I will note that a lot of these neighborhoods have changed since the I imagine the last time we did any kind of Transportation assessment right yeah um we only have a few minutes left and I want to be mindful of the time I think this was like a really really good discussion um and Megan and I can take some some work on to craft some questions and things like that um but I think the other question to your point about Outreach I think we do need to think about um how do we get participation um I think we certainly um you know we could think about like the timing of the survey and when it goes out like are we are we interested in this going out like in September when we can like send it with like all the other paperwork that goes home and ask people to do it is that a terrible time of year so really interested in like what the right timing of this is that would allow us to collect good data and still position us to um use the data to inform any sort of RFP we need to do for our yellow bus service next year um but also um think about like what are the mechanisms where people are the most like we are the most likely to be able to convince people to do this um and how do we Pro you know how do we sort of capitalize on H High participation kinds of like moments to like get people to engage I think students like we have some we have options like you know using their advisory blocks and um we can even have like a a drawing of some some kind right like we could do something that incense people to reply um from a student perspective I think that's less less what's the right word less uh motivating maybe to parents who are like I get 100 eils a day I'm not gonna take the time to do this right for a $5 doll gift card but um you know are there other reasons why I I think there's a swath of families that will be highly motivated to do this but I am equally concerned that we want to hear maybe more from the the families who don't don't fill it out um or at least as much so how do we create a way to get to them too remember so thank you um you know when I was looking at the stfe schools survey results um you know while they have this like morning afternoon of each day thing which I think is great and you see some fascinating variability um I kind of I I'm struck that there's and believe me nobody wants to put out a survey with 350 questions um but it I am struck by the fact that there seems to be no recognition that what you do in January versus what you do in May and September if you're a hardcore biker you may be like all right we have two feet of snow this entire February every Monday I maybe I won't bike there's no seasonality that's the word and um I'm hoping that safe schools is always like this is the date otherwise that data seems like that would be a little questionable but um it seems important also because if we put the survey out in September it's beautiful out are people who want to bike are biking um we may get a false sense of like how much traffic there's going to be if we did some change how much actual use of um busing is there going to be um yeah I just I just feels like that seasonality stuff and it isn't just seasonality I mean it's weather I would put a slash weather on that um because I mean I I I'm assuming that you know when the nor Easter comes through there might be fewer people biking yeah possibly Erica I remember where iel I know those things don't put her off but for the less hearty of us y okay um it's 5:31 so we'll wrap this up here um if there is anything else um that you all are thinking about just go ahead and shoot me a note and then Megan I will connect with you and we can find some time to um get through the next steps here and um then once we have that I will be back in touch to schedule another meeting for us to like review because the next the thing after that um will be to bring this to the full committee which um I think we said we would do by June so you do a j I just I'm I'm noting Megan's comment in the chat here about asking families to sign up for the bus in May this year does that mean there's content you'd like to have ready with that sign up to say you are you you're not asking for a preliminary survey response or we shouldn't try to push things to meet that okay because if this is the moment when everyone's ready to talk about their transportation needs I don't want to miss an opportunity um so no I don't think that we should rush it that like I think I think that this is especially because we're talking about the end of next year being when our contract is up I think we should be thoughtful about this survey and take time and not try and squeeze it into this may I'm just asking for the signups in May um for so that we can better get a handle on who's signing up that's not eligible and if there's any re re-rooting that we need to do and notifying families ahead of with plenty of time it's just to buy myself more time um I think that makes a lot of sense yeah I think I think rushing the survey would be too much but if we happen to have it ready to go we might give it at the same time saying nothing's changing yet but we're just you know everything's in place for next year um with some you know we reserve the right to make a couple of changes but we just wanted to ask this survey for planning for strategic planning for the future future that's what I would recommend um member Graham do you know if this kind of assessment is going to for the new high for a new high school would this be a separate effort to understand the needs there um good question I think it can be but I think if there's data that we can like use and leverage we can certainly provide that to it would really be to the folks doing the feasibility study so I think they they would be interested in like sizing sort of what those needs are from a feasibility perspective so I think if we have input that we can provide them that would be useful but um I I may I assume that they also will have their own ways that they recommend sort of getting answers to those questions so because I know building and grounds are separate separate entities for people yeah yeah yeah um so yeah I think probably both is the short answer thanks okay um I Heard a motion to adjourn by members so oh I can second that seconded by member reinfeld so I'll do a roll call uh member reinfeld yes member so yes member Graham yes um three in the affirmative zero in the negative the meeting is adjourned thanks everyone thank you everyone good night everyone bye