TSTG Agenda February 16 2018 Agenda

TORONTO STUDENT TRANSPORTATION GROUP Public Agenda February 16th, 2018 80 Sheppard Ave E Executive Meeting Room – 3rd Floor 12:00PM – 2:00PM Jo-Ann Davis Jennifer Arp Maia Puccetti Carlene Jackson Blank I. Call to order II. Roll call III. Approval of the Agenda (pg. 3) IV. Approval of Minutes (pg. 4-6) V. Student Transportation Working Group Minutes VI. General Manager – Verbal Updates VII. New business - actionable A. Ombudsman Office Update Report (pg. 7-15) B. TSTG 2018-2019 Draft Budget (pg. 16-19) C. TCDSB Bell Time Change for 2018-2019 (pg. 20-23) VIII. New business – informational TSTG Annual Report (pg. 24-55) IX. Communications From Switzer-Carty Transportation (pg. 56-57) From OASBO (pg. 58-59) X. Pending Items (pg. 60-61) XI. Date of Next Meeting Friday May 18th, 2018 (12:00PM – 2:00PM) XII. Adjournment XIII. Glossary (pg. 62-63) 3 Toronto Student Transportation Group Committee Meeting Thursday December 7th, 2017 80 Sheppard Ave E, 3rd Floor Executive Meeting Room Present S. Cary-Meagher J. Davis (t) C. Jackson A. Sangiorgio (t) Staff K. Hodgkinson G. Green (t) Z. McGroarty R. Bird J. Volek C. Snider The meeting was called to order at 12:32PM Roll Call was taken by today’s chair C. Jackson Moved by S. Cary-Meagher that the agenda be approved. Carried Moved by A. Sangiorgio that the minutes as presented be approved. Carried Moved by A. Sangiorgio that the minutes from the student Transportation Working Group be received. Carried Moved by A. Sangiorgio that the report titled ‘Transportation Inclement Weather Protocol’ be amended with direction to staff: 1. That the updated inclement weather protocol be approved. 1 | Page 4 2. That each Board will follow up with staff to ensure that the protocol is communicated to all Superintendents, Principals, and Teachers. 3. That if service is cancelled that all Principals and Trustees continue to receive direct notification. Carried Moved by S. Cary-Meagher that the report titled ‘TSTG Transportation Breakdown’ be approved as amended with direction to staff: 1. That the School Boards review the data associated with the cost and impact to transported students and consider revisions to their transportation policy that more closely reflects services consistent with Ministry Transportation Grants. 2. That the TSTG write to the Ministry of Education again outlining the findings of the optimization project and ask for immediate financial assistance to offset the difference between the current shortfall and the cost associated with transporting students in Toronto given the basic services as highlighted in this optimization project. 3. That the Ministry be asked to provide a Provincial policy standard for student transportation. Carried Moved by S.Cary Meagher that the Communication titled “Separate Legal Entity’ be received with direction to staff: 1. Bring back the environmental scan so that the committee can review the document and decide on actions to address consortium HR issues. Carried Moved by A. Sangiorgio that the Communication titled ‘Winter protocol, accident reporting, carrier meeting’ be received with direction to staff: 1. That the Operations Committee minutes be brought back to the TSTG for review. 2 | Page 5 J. Davis moved for adjournment at 2:25pm. Carried _______________ _________________ Co-Chair Secretary _______________ Date 3 | Page 6 TO: TSTG GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 16TH, 2018 FROM: GENERAL MANAGER SUBJECT: OMBUDSMAN REPORT – SIX MONTH UPDATE Origin: Recommendation 42 in Ombudsman report Executive Summary The Toronto Student Transportation Group has been working at addressing the recommendations identified by the Ontario Ombudsman and have provided an update on status of their implementation. Comment(s): 1. On August 10th, 2017 the Ontario Ombudsman released a report titled ‘The Route of the Problem’ which was a report on the findings after an investigation into the Toronto District and Toronto Catholic District School Board’s oversight of student transportation and their response to delays and disruptions at the start of the 2016- 2017 school year. 2. The investigation was launched in September 0f 2016 in response to 49 complaints (from all over the Province of Ontario) and resulted in 42 recommendations being issued. Those recommendations were a result of 43 interviews that were conducted with industry experts and staff collecting over 20 gigabytes of documentation including 55,000 e-mails. 3. The recommendations can be broken down into 6 themes including: a, Procurement & Contracts b, Consortium Organization and Human Resources c, Technology use d, Communications e, Oversight and f, Operations. 4. Transportation staff had already put into action a number of changes based on internal review that were also included in the recommendations from Ombudsman’s report. There were also a number of items that were started after the initial draft was provided to the consortium and School Boards to confirm accuracy and to get feedback on the details within the report. Many of these actions did allow the Consortium to have a far better start-up then the previous year. Although there were delays and continue to be delays they are not attributed to a shortage of drivers but a 7 gap in the spare driver pool that fill in for drivers who are off sick or on short term leave. The school bus operators continue to provide us a weekly KPI summary of stats which clearly indicates that drivers are being recruited and trained on a weekly basis to support their operations. One ominous piece of data however, is that there are almost as many drivers leaving the school bus operators as they are able to put on the road each week. 5. Of the forty-two recommendations; ten have not been started; eleven are complete, and twenty-one are in progress. It should be noted that most of the ‘not started’ recommendations have to do with procurement and the contract and as such will be dealt with when the next competitive procurement process is activated. We are currently in year two of a six-year contract with two one year extensions. 6. Recommendation 42 required the School Boards and Consortium to provide an update report every six months until the Ombudsman Office was satisfied that adequate steps have been taken to address the issues highlighted in the report. Staff have been working to address those recommendations and have provided an update that is captured in the summary table in Appendix A. Recommendation: 1. That the document attached in Appendix A be provided to the Ombudsman office to update them on actions taken to address recommendations in their report on student transportation in Toronto. K. Hodgkinson General Manager 8 February 16th, 2018 Mr. Paul Dube Ombudsman Ontario 483 Bay Street, 10th Floor South Tower, Toronto, ON M5G 2C9 Dear Mr. Dube, On behalf of the Governance Committee overseeing the Toronto Student Transportation Group for the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board, we are writing to provide the six-month update on the actions taken by our organization to address your recommendations. The Governance Committee has recently reviewed a report prepared by the consortium on the status of the recommendations in your report. To date, eleven have been completed, twenty-one are in progress and the remaining ten recommendations will be reviewed closer to the start of the next contract cycle. The ten that have yet to be started deal with procurement and contracts and as we are in year two of a ‘six plus two’ contract these items will be addressed as we prepare for our next round of competitive procurement. A number of the completed items assisted us in improving the school bus driver situation this school year and minimize the impact to our students and families. Some of those actions included: The Governance Committee approved the use of a professional call centre for this year’s bussing start-up which resulted in more inquires being answered and more in a timely manner. The Governance Committee asked the General Manager to facilitate the planning and delivery of bus routes to our bus operators earlier which resulted in companies and drivers having more time to ensure driver selection, the dry running of routes, and more time for specific driver recruitment and training along with time to facilitate the movement of routes between carriers where needed. The Governance Committee asked the General Manager to ensure the delay portal has greater flexibility and more visual acuities to help the parents better understand the magnitude of delays. Student Transportation is a large and complex logistical endeavour. The actions we take are far reaching throughout the school system and we endeavour to ensure that actions are in place to meet our stakeholders needs. We appreciate your recommendations and will do our best to implement the outstanding items in a timely fashion so that we are making every effort possible Toronto Student Transportation Group; 2 Trethewey Drive; 2nd Floor Annex; Toronto, Ontario; M6M 4A8 9 416-394-4287; [email protected]; www.torontoschoolbus.org to improve the level of service provided to our students, families, schools, and communities we serve. Sincerely, Toronto Student Transportation Group; 2 Trethewey Drive; 2nd Floor Annex; Toronto, Ontario; M6M 4A8 10 416-394-4287; [email protected]; www.torontoschoolbus.org Appendix A Ombudsman Recommendation Original Response February 2018 Update The next RFP will be in 5‐7 years (current contract is a 6 year agreement with the possibility of up to two, one year extension. TDSB agrees that we need to provide 1. The Toronto Student Transportation Group should ensure future closer geographic zones. We are going to work to consolidating Not Started‐currently in Year 2 of a 6 year contract with a 2 year extension option RFPs allow bus operators to bid for specific routes in clear geographic zones.

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