A Thursday webinar sponsored by Scraper Systems examined the safety and operational costs of clearing snow from school bus rooftops and shared tools districts can use to calculate whether automated snow removal makes financial sense.

New York School District Shares Success

For Daniel Boyea, assistant director of transportation at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District near Albany, New York, rooftop snow removal comes down to more than clearing buses after a storm. It affects employee safety, route reliability, overtime and the students waiting for those buses to arrive.

Boyea, a 25-year student transportation veteran, currently helps oversee a 53-bus fleet that transports about 2,200 students a day. At his previous district, a larger 217-bus operation, he saw firsthand how quickly manual snow removal costs could add up.

“Before the purchase of the snowscraper, it would cost us about $10,000 per snowstorm to remove the snow,” Boyea said. “So that’s mechanics coming in on overtime, dispatchers, anybody that can help out.”

With the Albany area averaging about six significant snowfalls of 3 inches or more each year, Boyea noted that those costs could reach roughly $60,000 annually. After the district adopted an automated scraper, “We were able to cut that cost in half,” he shared.

“Just six inches of wet, heavy snow equates to around 3,600 pounds, or close to two tons, of additional weight that you’re going to be carrying with you on the road if you don’t take care of that snow on top of the bus.”

- Michael Shelton, Business Development Manager, Scraper Systems

Boyea said the change also reduced the physical toll on employees. Manual roof rakes required employees to work around snow-covered buses and could lead to shoulder and back injuries or slips and falls.

“We already have a large driver shortage, so we really don’t need any more injuries,” he quipped.

The operational impact can extend to students and families. Boyea recalled that routes commonly ran late when employees had to use roof rakes to clear buses of snow.

“Starting your route on time, picking the students up on time, and getting the kids to the school on time is critical,” he emphasized.

“[The snow scraper] greatly increased our efficiency in our transportation operation, at both districts that I was with,” he confirmed.

Winter Safety Risks

Operationally, Boyea urged transportation departments to consider what happens after a school bus leaves the yard. Snow sliding forward can cover mirrors, while rooftop accumulation can fall onto the roadway.

“You have to plan for the safety of everyone, whether it’s your staff, your students, and you also have to think about the public,” he said.

Jackie Germer, inside sales representative for Scraper Systems, recalled speaking with a transportation director who recalled the danger he encountered when snow and ice flew off another vehicle and into the windshield of the school bus he was driving.

“Fortunately, he and the students [were] all safe,” Germer said. “But he told me that it made him really consider the fact that if it happened to him, it could happen because of him.”

Michael Shelton, business development manager for Scraper Systems, said a poll found 60 percent of webinar registrants were manually removing rooftop snow with ice rakes, while slightly more than 20 percent reported doing nothing.

“Safety is the main focus,” Shelton said. “What’s the most important aspect of all of this? Well, it’s having our kids get to school safely and on time.”

Illustrating how less-obvious expenses can accumulate, he calculated $18,554 in annual labor and waiting-driver costs for a 50-bus fleet experiencing five snow events a year. Additionally, he estimated that a fleet of idling buses can consume 25 gallons of fuel per hour while waiting to be cleared. That’s not to mention worker’s compensation claims or hidden issues like fines, absences and fleet delays.

“Just six inches of wet, heavy snow equates to around 3,600 pounds, or close to two tons, of additional weight that you’re going to be carrying with you on the road if you don’t take care of that snow on top of the bus,” Shelton said.

“We want to quantify it for you because that’s what we’re here to talk about,” he summarized.

Germer also noted that rooftop snow can affect liability, compliance, efficiency and employee morale. The presentation identified several U.S. states and Canadian provinces with specific rooftop snow-removal legislation.

Related: Bitter Winter Weather Halts School Bus Operations in Parts of South, Mid-Atlantic
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Related: Transportation Teamwork Brings California Students Home After Snowed-in Science Camp

Calculating ROI

Finn Livingston, director of product management for Scraper Systems, said districts should evaluate four factors when comparing snow-removal methods: Safety, cost, efficiency and reliability.

“Whatever method you use for rooftop snow removal, these four key points need to be considered: safety, cost, efficiency, and reliability,” Livingston said.

He said the company’s automated rooftop snow removal system clears a bus roof in about 30 seconds. Its medium-duty model is designed for fleets of up to 80 buses per day, while its heavy-duty model can accommodate up to 400.

Comparing manual and automated snow removal methods, he estimated annual time, labor and idling-fuel savings ranging from $15,040 for 50 vehicles to $46,433 for 150 vehicles. Depending on climate, fleet size and equipment cost, the examples showed potential payback periods of one to two years, though the presentation cautioned that actual results will vary.

“The calculator is a way for you to evaluate the cost of your operation today and make decisions about the value of automation for your operation in the future,” Livingston said. “Operational benefits [include] getting your busses ready faster, fewer delays, and more predictable winter operations.”

Watch the webinar on demand.

Written with the assistance of AI and a live session transcript.

The post School Bus Snow Removal System Cuts Costs, Injuries for New York District appeared first on School Transportation News.

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly indicated during a Wednesday hearing he may order the Trump administration to reinstate White House press passes for reporters from three news organizations who had their credentials revoked this weekend. 

Kelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said at the beginning of a 45-minute hearing that he is largely bound by circuit court rulings that ensure journalists with White House press passes have due process rights before their access to the complex could be rescinded. 

“The government says those cases … were wrongly decided,” Kelly said. “Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. But certainly as a district judge I have to apply them and I think it is fair to say that the processes that the Circuit Court laid out in those two cases … (weren’t) followed here.”

Kelly said at the end of the hearing he will release his ruling as soon as he can, though he did not give any more details about how soon that might be. 

President Donald Trump nominated Kelly during his first term and the Senate confirmed him following a broadly bipartisan vote in September 2017. 

This case began Monday when CNN, MS Now and Politico sued the Trump administration for barring their reporters from entering the White House grounds. 

The news organizations asked the district court to grant them either a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction that would require the White House to return the press passes, allowing the journalists to work from the complex once again. 

‘Very essence of the First Amendment’

Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., a partner at Gibson Dunn who represented the news organizations, said the president’s decision to revoke the press passes of 78 journalists represented an “unprecedented, unreasonable and severe punishment.”  

“What the government is objecting to … is that very essence of the First Amendment,” he said.  

Boutrous said claims from the White House the president’s decision was based on national security concerns only came after the lawsuit was filed, not when the decision was announced Friday, or over the weekend when it was implemented. 

Trump said Friday in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office that his ban wasn’t in response to any specific story but “really just cumulative stories over the last two years.”

“They’re smart people, but they purposely write negative news. And they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration,” he said. “And honestly, we’ve done a fantastic job. Look at the numbers, look at the economic numbers. We have more money coming into our country today than ever before.”

Boutrous argued during the hearing that while the president holds the right to criticize reporters and news organizations as much as he wants, the administration cannot “use the power of the government to punish them for their expression.” 

In response to questions from the judge about whether there would ever be a circumstance where the White House could revoke a press pass, Boutrous said if someone was a spy, represented a physical threat, or a national security threat, “there would of course be authority by the White House to deal with that.”

But he also referenced the Pentagon Papers, and said he didn’t believe that type of reporting on national security issues would justify revoking a reporter’s White House press pass.

The White House’s decision to revoke press passes for reporters from those three news organizations has led the major television networks that rotate daily coverage of the president to stop doing so. The decision has limited what videos of the president are released through that television pool system. 

DOJ argues access ‘a privilege, not a right’

Michael Velchik, senior counsel in the civil division of the Justice Department, said the Trump administration would oppose a ruling  requiring the White House to return the press passes and allow reporters from those news organizations to resume coverage there. 

“Access to the White House is a privilege not a right,” he said. 

Velchik seemed to suggest that if the judge were to require the White House to reinstate the press passes, it shouldn’t happen during the next few days, when Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., to meet with the president.

The White House, he said, had also sent letters to CNN, MS Now and Politico on Tuesday, informing them why their press passes were revoked and giving them the chance to reply by Friday evening. 

Democrat sees ban as part of pattern

U.S. House Administration Committee ranking member Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., said during a separate virtual press briefing on Wednesday that he believes the ban of the news outlets was part of a pattern of Trump misusing government power to attack perceived opponents.

“The Trump administration has flagrantly abused the immense power of the federal government against organizations and institutions whose work, whose clients or viewpoints it disagrees with,” he said. “We don’t need to look any further than this outrageous attempt by the president to silence CNN, MS Now, Politico and others.”

Jacob Fischler contributed to this report.