April, 2019
INDUSTRY NEWS - MN SCHOOL BUS
Upcoming Events

5/8-10/2019
Duluth, MN

MN State Safety Competition Road-EO
6/1/2019

STN
6/7-12/2019
Indianapolis, IN

6/9-11/2019
Rutger's Sugar Lake

7/15-19/2019
Minneapolis Marriott NW
Brooklyn Park.
MSBOA is now accepting applications for various awards including:
MSBOA Lifetime achievement Award Criteria Here
Holly Hoglund Klein MSBOA Grant  Application here
and the Transportation Specialist Award Nomination Form here
Recognition for the winners at the summer conference.
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What the Jayme Closs Kidnapping Means to School Bus Stop Safety
A child abduction case in Wisconsin that recently made international headlines has refocused attention on school bus stop safety. The role that bus drivers may be able to play in better keeping their students proactively safer, is a core part of the incident and aspects to evaluate.
Clean-diesel today isn’t what it was 10 or 15 years ago and, in fact, it’s still the best long-term solution for most districts.
With so much talk about alternative fuels today,  diesel  has become a dirty word – literally. Districts running a diesel fleet are starting to feel the pressure to switch to something cleaner and greener, if only just to keep up with the buzz of the industry. But the truth is that diesel is comparable to or even cleaner than other fuel types based on EPA-regulated emissions. Maintenance on diesel engines is now easier than ever, and districts running a diesel fleet continue to reap the benefits of proven durability, reliability and cost savings. Check out why clean-diesel is still the best long-term solution for fleets. 
Demystifying the Complexity of Regen Issues
Detroit DD5 engine in the Saf-T-Liner C2
Diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration is one of the largest pain points for school bus operators and maintenance technicians. It’s not uncommon to hear of fleets who experience multiple regen issues a day, causing their buses to remain parked or on the side of the road in need of a manual regen.
“We know that regens are frustrating to customers, which is why we’ve been investing in new technologies to diminish their impact,” said Caley Edgerly, president and CEO of Thomas Built Buses. “To date, we’ve worked with Cummins to promote a new Stay Warm feature for fleets with existing diesel engines. We’ve also been working with Detroit on the state-of-the-art Detroit™ DD5™ and DD8™ engines, which offer best-in-class aftertreatment systems that nearly eliminate all regen issues.”
Hopkins Public Schools wins top honors for race and equity initiative
Local Government Innovation Awards singles out six schools’ successes
By Michelle Wirth, Communications/PR Specialist for Hopkins Public Schools
For the 12th straight year, the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs recognized the creative ways school districts and other local governments are finding to deliver services with greater impact and at lower cost.
Hopkins Public Schools — in partnership with the City of Hopkins and the Gethsemane Church in Hopkins — was named the “Leading Innovator” in 2018 LGIA overall school category for “Hopkins Race and Equity Initiative.” Hopkins Public Schools will receive a $5,000 grant from the Bush Foundation to continue local government innovation and redesign.
2019 National School Bus Illegal Passing Survey
While school buses remain incredibly safe, we all know that students who ride buses are most vulnerable when they are outside the bus in the “danger zone.” Minnesota is assisting the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) in coordinating a national survey to determine the prevalence of illegal passing of school buses. That data will help improve safety countermeasures at the state or national level.
We are enlisting your assistance in this important project. On April 17, 2019, please have your district’s school bus operators observe and report any instances of motorists illegally passing their school buses, using the “Driver Illegal Passing Reporting Form.”
Please collect your district’s results and report them no later than April 30, 2019, as follows:
Walz signs snow day relief bill
Kimberley Dunn Lewis MSBA Communications Specialist klewis@mnmsba.org
Gov. Tim Walz signed the snow day relief bill (SF 1743) into law on Monday, April 1. The new law allows school districts to count days missed because of snow as instructional days. If districts take advantage of the new law, certain requirements must be met.
■ The board of a school district or charter school that canceled school on one or more days during the 2018-2019 school year due to health and safety concerns may count those days as instructional days for purposes of calculating the number of hours and days in the school year.
■ If a school district would not have met the required minimum number of days and hours of instruction for students, it must report to the commissioner of education the number of days and hours that the district counted to meet the required days and hours of instruction. A district is also encouraged to adopt an e-learning plan.
■ If a school board resolves to count a day that school was canceled as an instructional day, the school district must compensate employees and contract employers or allow the day to be made up on a designated day.
■ The minimum number of days of teacher service that a probationary teacher must complete equals the difference between 120 days and the number of scheduled instructional days that were canceled due to health and safety concerns and that the school board resolved to count as days of instruction
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Train the Trainer 2019
BIG NEWS!
Train The Trainer 2019 will be held at a NEW location!
 
The conference will be held July 15-18, 2019 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest in Brooklyn Park.
 
Conference topics and mechanic's topics will both be held beginning Monday, July 15th with featured keynote speaker Al Johnson, Principal at Apollo High School in St. Cloud. Al will speak from 8-10 am on "Where does your passion come from? How you could make a difference in a child's life."
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