In May, the National Congress on School Transportation celebrated it’s 75th – well, technically 76th – birthday. Many in the industry know of the first national school bus specification meeting in 1939, called by Dr. Frank Cyr of Teacher’s College at Columbia University with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation. An article by io9.com shed some good detail on perhaps the most famous result of that first event.
The 10 states that met – 46 attended the most recent NCST in May – approved the formation of “National School Bus Chrome” as the defined color of yellow that all school buses should be painted. Beside the color, however, just what constituted National School Bus Chrome? The blog io9 tells us.
As Esther Inglis-Arkell writes for this blog of “science, culture, and the world of tomorrow,” the chrome stood for chromium, a toxic element that is tied to cancer. Making matters worse, National School Bus Chrome contained hexavalent chromium, which Inglis-Arkell writes can damage DNA. Obviously something had to change.
She adds, however, that the paint probably did more damage to employees at manufacturing plants rather than to students who rode the school buses.
We now know just how much Daimler Trucks North America is investing in Zonar. The Seattle Times reported that the figure is $50 million. Both companies had been tightlipped about the transaction details, but a Zonar representative told STN that the Times got its hands on a legally required Form D filing.
In the meantime, STN readers can learn more about the deal in our August Q&A with Caley Edgerly, the president and CEO of Thomas Built Buses.
Arlington Public Schools in Virginia announced last week it is kicking off its Stop Arm Safety Program in partnership with American Traffic Solutions. Video cameras have began capturing images of vehicles that fail to stop for an extended school bus stop arm, reports the Arlington Patch. Violators face tickets of $250.
Arlington County now becomes one of the first communities in Virginia to approve the use of exterior school bus cameras.
Republican Presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill into law that provides vouchers to use public tax money to send some special needs students to private schools. Education Week reports that under the new voucher program private schools would have to agree to implement the child’s IEP, “as modified by agreement between the student’s parents and the private school.”
But according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, transportation service would not be required. Both the school boards group and the Wisconsin Department of Education oppose the law.
