In its own version of a Capital Hill “fly in,” more than 400 members of the National Head Start Association flew into Washington, D.C., this week to meet with congressional members regarding the importance of the sustaining funding for the federal program that benefits low-income, pre-school aged children.
Meanwhile, last month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a Head Start Safety Report from a May 2009 through October 2010 audit of three Head Start grantees from each of eight States that were most at risk for noncompliance with health and safety regulations and standards.
“The results of the HHS audit of Head Start programs at-risk for noncompliance with health safety regulations and standards are a testament to the Head Start community’s shared commitment to ensuring the safest, highest-quality programs for the over one million children and families Head Start and Early Start serves every year,” said Yasmina Vinci, executive director of NHSA, in a statement.
The audit targeted 24 grantees with a high risk for non-compliance, 21 of which immediately corrected deficiencies, with the three remaining grantees losing Head Start funding. Vinci added that themore than 1,600 Head Start grantees nationwide recognize that “providing a safe early learning environment is a primary goal and remains committed to excellence in the pursuit of quality.”
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If you haven’t heard much from Allison Transmission, Inc., of late on the school bus side, it might be because the company is undergoing a “dark period” as the company prepares to for an intial public offering of stock. The company announced its intent last spring as it sought to raise $750 million. We last read in November that the company was still chasing the IPO, according to the Indiana Business Journal.
We heard earlier this month that there remains confidence the offering will proceed as plan, but for now the company isn’t making much news, which is common for organizations in similar positions. Still, it’s not like Allison has completely flown under the radar. Allison just released the new 1350 model for its Pupil Transport/Shuttle Series. Earlier this month, it also announced it is equipping Mitsubishi Aero Star transit buses in Japan with its automatic transmissions for mountainous driving.
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Several STN readers commented to us this week that a webinar presentation by the Enterprise Wireless Alliance’s Mark Crosby on the FCC two-way radio narrowbanding mandate that goes into effect next year was the first time the issue was explained to them in a manner that they understood. That’s music to our ears, which is why we are discussions with him to give a curtain call at this summer’s STN EXPO conference in Reno, Nev. Special thanks for the webinar also goes to sponsor Motorola Solutions.
In addition to the archived webinar, here’s a download of the Power Point presentation.
Next month, transportation safety consultant Ted Finlayson-Schueler is scheduled to present a webinar on utilizing the school bus as a travel training tool for students with disabilities. Stay tuned for details.
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Aaron Gunderson, the man convicted of hitting and killing 7-year-old Kadyn Halverson last May in Worth County, Iowa, as she was attempting to cross the street to her waiting school bus, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. According to police and eyewitness reports, Gunderson hit Halvorson after blowing past the school buses’ stop arm and dragged the little girl 200 feet before her body was thrown free. Gunderson did not stop.
When police later arrested him, Gunderson asked if he had hit a deer. The incident prompted Kadyn’s Law, which has been introduced in Iowa to strengthen penalties for motorists who illegally pass stopped school buses. As we reported earlier, the bill also calls for a study of the effectiveness of cameras to catch motorists in the act.
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So much of the national, and world, news over the past couple of weeks has centered on the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia that was run into rocks off of the Tuscan coast on Jan. 13, one of the most egregious examples of driver (or in this case captain) error in recent history. It’s being referred to as our generation’s Titanic. Not to make light of the loss of life in this horrible crash caused by a complete lack of judgement, if not outright stupidity tinged with an appaling amount of cowardice, but we couldn’t resist posting this photo submitted to us by a reader with the following caption. Sometimes laughter, especially on a Friday, is the best medicine.
