The school bus in Ottenhofen should now be improved.
Admittedly, nothing will change in school transport for the time being, but the municipality wants to organize early supervision before school starts.
Ottenhofen
- At least one small success is emerging in the field of school transport in Ottenhofen: Mayor Nicole Schley (SPD) announces in an interview with our newspaper that efforts are being made to organize regular early supervision before school starts: “It's our turn.
It doesn't have to be that the children are unsupervised. "
In a letter to our editorial team, Hubert Rappold from Unterschwillach complained, among other things, of precisely these conditions: "Some first graders have to leave the house at 7 o'clock, stand or sometimes stand in front of closed school doors without supervision, and winter is yet to come." He criticizes this as a consequence, because the small school bus used cannot transport more students at the same time.
According to Schley, this is not entirely true, but it was recognized that something could still be improved here.
As the father concerned, Rappold also wrote: "The argument that you could save 100 euros really angered the hearts of the families concerned." That is how much a larger bus would cost per day.
Schley, on the other hand, explains: "The parents have come to terms with the solution."
The Unterschwillacher Rappold further complains that the bus drivers would - contrary to what was reported - not call parents if a child was missing. The argument that a larger bus cannot turn in many parts of the community is also wrong: “After all, children also travel to secondary schools with large buses that are used in almost all districts.” The mayor explains: “These buses don't have to turn around. And it is just the case that private areas are not allowed to be used for this. "
In the local council, Schley had stated that a larger bus with 14 seats would bring an improvement of only seven minutes. In the official gazette and bulletin, she recently described it as the "most serious" disadvantage of this solution that the two bus drivers would have to be dismissed because they are not allowed to drive the big bus. "I ask all parents of Bus children to understand that we do not want to take this step because we have gained seven minutes," said Schley.
For Rappold, on the other hand, it is not an argument that the bus drivers do not have the appropriate driver's license class: “This should not justify the inadequate transport solution,” he says.
Overall, he complains that the administration did not fully inform the local councils about the school bus situation at the meeting.
"Many parents find the transport situation unsatisfactory."
Essentially, the same bus size will be used as in the 1980s - and that with a significant increase in the number of schoolchildren.
"Two smaller buses with an additional cost of 186.76 euros per day would probably be the most sensible solution," suggests Rappold and says that the municipality actually complies with the ordinance on school transport, but it is not child-friendly.
For Rappold, however, the local councils, who usually have no “bus children”, are not to blame.
They were informed incorrectly, “so that no need for action could be identified.
In addition, it may not always be easy for the administration to bundle the sometimes different interests of the parents. "The information in the municipal council is" tendentious and factually wrong in various places.
"It is not a top service, but a medium-sized disaster for affected parents and children."
By Klaus Kuhn and Vroni Macht