May 13, 2012
SCAPT MEMBERS:
WOW!!!! It’s hard to believe that my term is close to expiring. I can truly say that it’s been a great honor and a privilege to serve as president of SCAPT. Please read this letter carefully because I have several important things I would like to share with you.
As many of you are aware, the original H4610 Bill was amended by the full House of Representatives to form a study committee and sent to the Senate. The Bill is currently in the Senate for review. Late in the evening on Wednesday, May 9 the Senate K-12 Education Subcommittee adopted an amendment to the State Budget and put it into a proviso. The language of the study committee was passed by the House that essentially became H4610. The amendment calls for the study committee to be made up of eleven members; four appointed by the Speaker of the House in which one must be a school finance officer, four members appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate in which one must be a school finance officer, and three members appointed by the Governor. If the Senate passes their version of the budget with this proviso in it, the committee will be formed and begin meeting during the summer and fall. They are scheduled to report their findings to each house of the General Assembly and to the Governor no later than January 1, 2013. This means that we may have a busier summer than we originally expected. Our work will involve taking additional time to go to the committee meetings. This is not something that we should fear, but welcome, as an opportunity to work through the legislative details. Please remain very vigilant and be ready to respond in a moment’s notice if called upon to give input to this committee. In the interim, I would like to thank each of you for everything you have done in support of SCAPT and its stance on this issue. Needless to say, next year has the potential to become even more challenging than this year has been.
I would like to congratulate our winners of this year’s Regular Ed Road-e-o. First place went to Perry Fogle from Berkeley School District, second place to Leah Woods from Berkeley School District, and third place to Calandra Jones from Richland School District Two. The Road-e-o was a huge success due the number of participants, those of you who helped with judging, serving food, etc., and not to mention all the moral support that was given.
The SCAPT Board and I are in the process of finalizing the upcoming conference. For planning purposes, we will not be offering NAPT classes this year. The Board has decided due to the decline in NAPT participation that SCAPT will no longer sponsor NAPT classes, but instead will encourage members to seek this professional training on an individual bases. Please be mindful, the board has scheduled speakers that will be exciting, challenging, and informative to everyone at this year’s conference.
In closing, please take advantage of our website to make hotel reservations and more. Also, I have attached a “DRAFT AGENDA” for your review.
I’m looking forward to seeing each and every one of you there.
Sincerely,
Darryl K. Webb
Darryl K. Webb
Director of Transportation
Anderson School District Five
Phone: (864)260-5000 (ext 10137)
Fax: (864)260-4343
Email: darrylwebb@anderson5.net
Dear Sponsor:
On behalf of the South Carolina Association for Pupil Transportation Executive Board and Regional Board of Directors, I would like to invite you to attend the 37th Annual South Carolina Association for Pupil Transportation Conference Workshop and Trade Show being held July 17-20, 2012 at the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The Workshop dates will be July 17-20, 2012. The Trade Show will be held on Wednesday July 18, beginning with breakfast in the show area at 7:00 AM. The show will run from 8:00 AM till 12 Noon.
Our sponsor registration fee this year is $400.00. I remind you that any sponsor, who donates $1,000 during the year for the various events sponsored by SCAPT, or just for the Trade Show, will have their registration fee waived. Our goal is to have each SCAPT member get to know you and your product or services. This benefits both the member and you.
Our annual SCAPT Golf tournament will be held on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at Whispering Pines Golf Course, with tee-off at 8:00 AM. Registration will begin at 7:00 AM and run until 7:45 AM. Donations are being accepted and vendors will be allowed to sponsor at least one golf hole for a minimal fee of $120.00 per hole. We would like for each of our sponsors and vendors to come out and support us by playing a round. For those sponsoring a hole, a sign with your name will be posted at an individual green.
Please complete the attached workshop registration form and return it to us as soon as possible, preferably by June 1, 2012. You will need to make your own reservations with the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center, sponsored on our website at www.scapt.org. You will also find links for additional equipment requests at your booth site, a freight service form, and shipping labels to forward your exhibit materials in advance. The Convention Center Ballroom will be open for your display set-up on Tuesday July 17, from 2-5 PM.
This year continues to present challenges and changes in pupil transportation. Only with an unwavering dedication to our purpose and support of one another, will we be able to continually provide the highest level of safety, quality training, and service to our students and transportation family.
We are look forward to seeing you in Myrtle Beach!
Sincerely,
President
Darryl K. Webb Director of Transportation Anderson School District Five P.O. Box 349 Anderson, S.C. 29622 Office: 864-260-5000 ext.: 10137 E-mail: darrylwebb@anderson5.netMarch, 22 2012
SCAPT Members:
I’m writing to give you an update on a couple of issues. I know many of you are interested in how the hearing went on Tuesday March 20th with the Ways and Means Sub-Committee concerning Bill H4610. The committee met for a period of time taking testimony on the, now called, Decentralization Bill. The meeting began with Representative Merrill, where he informed us that there would be an amendment to Bill H4610 that would strike all of the old language and insert new language. In summary, the new bill states that the state will surrender ownership of the buses and bus shops to the school districts “free of charge.” The subcommittee adopted this amendment; so going forward the new language will be used. Representative Merrill moved to reschedule another committee meeting in order to give everyone the opportunity to read and get familiar with the new version of the Decentralization Bill (Bill H4610). As of this morning, no new meeting has been scheduled on H4610 in its amended version. I will notify you as soon as I learn when the next subcommittee meeting will be held. Again, this will allow time for additional testimony concerning this bill.
Representative Merrill also stated several times that he had been working with the school districts on Bill H4610. If your school district has or has not been contacted by Representative Merrill in regards to Bill H4610, please let me know.
I can’t express enough the great job the following transportation directors did testifying: John Martin, Hampton School District Two; Eddie McKenzie, Darlington School District; Bill Kurts, Florence School District; Richard Podmore, York School District One; and Dave Weisman, Lexington School District Five. They made SCAPT very proud!! A HUGE THANK YOU to Ronny Townsend in preparing us for the hearing. Also, we had other transportation and school district employees there for support as well. Several school districts had people testify on behalf of their concerns and reasons as to why Bill H4610 should not be allowed to move forward.
I would like to take time to congratulate Bill Kurts for completing the NAPT Special Needs Transportation Training Program. Bill is the 21st person in the nation to complete this program. Bill will be recognized in both School Transportation News and School Bus Fleet Magazines.
Second, please be reminded of the Regular Road-e-o to be held on April 21st at RidgeView High School. The address is 4801 Hard Scrabble Road, Columbia, SC 29229. The deadline for applications is April 1st. You can print off a copy of the application from the SCAPT web page at www.scapt.org.
Last but not least, I would like to give everyone an update on this year’s conference. Please feel free to make hotel reservations at the Sheraton. The phone number is (843)918-5000 and the room rates are $126.00 per night for single/double bed rooms. The cut-off date for hotel registration is Friday, June 22nd.
January, 20 2012
Please see the attached information on House Bill H4610.
January, 8th 2012
SCAPT Members:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! I just wanted to give you an update on some things that have transpired since my last correspondence with you. First of all, the SCAPT Board had the privilege of meeting Kim Aydlette, SDE Deputy Superintendent of Operations & Support and Tim Camp, SDE Director of Transportation at our last meeting on November 16, 2011. The meeting was very informative and went very well. Mrs. Aydlette wanted me to pass on to you that she would love to hear from you if you have any questions or concerns. Her contact information is as follows: E-mail–KAydlette@ed.sc.gov and her phone number is 803-734-8169.
I would like to take a moment and congratulate our winners of the Special Needs Road-e-o. The winners are as follows: First Place, Tyrone Pinckney and Kevin Leavell from Jasper County; Second Place, Bryan Simmon and Twila Trupp from Richland/Lexington 5; Third Place, Myrna Mercer and Douglas Marvin from Spartanburg 6. Also, I would like to congratulate Dave Weisman, Transportation Director of Lexington School District Five, who became the 16th person in the nation to become certified in the NAPT Special Needs Transportation (SNT) Training Program after he completed course SNT 103 at our Road-e-o. Again, I would like to thank Dave Weisman and his people for sponsoring the Road-e-o, John Dozier, SDE Director of Safety & Information and his people for their help, the SCAPT Board, and everyone else who contributed and made the Road-e-o such a fun and successful event.
Last but not least, we are in the process of finalizing the location of the SCAPT conference. For planning purposes, the conference will be held again at the Sheraton Convention Center Hotel in Myrtle Beach. The dates are July 17 – 20th. Please share with me any ideas or topics you would like to have discussed at the conference. I will be contacting you with more information pertaining to the conference soon.
In closing, thanks for all you do for the students’ of South Carolina.
Sincerely,
Darryl K. Webb
November 14, 2011
Dear SCAPT Members:
As mentioned at the SCAPT conference last summer everyone was challenged to write letters to your local newspapers, legislators, and to the parents of your local school districts. I would like to share a letter (draft) Wayne Norton has written to the parents in his school district at Richland Two. Please feel free to use this letter (draft) as an example if you would like to write a letter to share any concerns that you may have as it relates to our current school bus system.
Please be mindful, it’s very important to make our legislators, parents, and the public aware of our school bus transportation issues due to the lack of funding.
In closing, I would like to thank Wayne for sharing his letter (draft) and for helping us strive to improve our safe and efficient transportation of the students we transport each and every day.
Sincerely,
Darryl K. Webb Link to the Richland Two Letter
October 5, 2011
Wow! Let me start by saying, it’s such an honor and a privilege to serve as SCAPT president. I hope that you all have had a smooth opening to a brand new school year. Our annual conference was a great success and I appreciate all that each of you did to make it meaningful to our professional development and to strengthen our association’s mission.
I look forward to keeping you abreast of the issues that will affect our association’s future. It is important that we stay focused especially on the issue of school bus privatization. Although, we heard Dr. Zais say that bus privatization is not a priority for him and he doubts, with the Governor’s full plate, that time will allow her to focus on the issue of privatization either. I must warn you that IT IS on the Governor’s agenda and she is pushing hard to get this done. She proved her interest on this issue when she vetoed $12.5 million from the State Appropriations bill, saying to Legislators and Senators that she does not believe that the state needs to be in the bus business. She has made this very clear in a number of news articles as well as in her campaign. We must not be misled into believing all is well and that we don’t have anything to worry about. It appears that we were told something different during our conference in the hope that it would deter us from being as active as we have been in the past year by making contact with Legislators and Senators on this issue.
We have a great association and I want us to be the voice in Columbia in regards to school bus privatization. Regardless of the outcome of any legislation, we need to be involved in the process from beginning to end if we are truly committed to continuing safe, efficient and reliable student transportation in South Carolina.
As I stated in the closing of our conference, I will be calling on many of you to contact elected officials throughout the year. Please don’t let our association membership down by not responding to the call for action when asked. Please call on me if you have any questions, concerns or thoughts about how we can work together for better promotion of our profession to our parents, administrators and all our elected officials.
Sincerely,
Darryl K. Webb
