Now, the Maryland School Bus Contractors Association, which represents 3,000 school buses in 19 of the state’s 24 jurisdictions, is weighing in and calling on the county school system to terminate its contract with California-based company Zum Transportation that operates 210+ buses for the school system...
Md. school bus association calls out Howard Co. bus contract - WTOP News
The move is raising concerns among local companies who worry their school bus drivers will be forced off the road and out of a job.
“It hits pretty hard. It's taken a lot out of us,” said Jared Defibaugh, who owns Blue Horizons, a local transportation company.
Defibaugh says his family-owned company has been driving Howard County students to and from school for 52 years. But he’s not sure if there will be a 53rd year...
ELKRIDGE, Md. (WBFF) — Parents in a Howard County neighborhood are outraged after learning their young children are losing their school bus, forcing students as young as kindergarten to walk more than a mile to school...
Specifically, Howard County Senator Clarence Lam and Delegate Courtney Watson have put forward a bill decreasing Dr. Chen and Ms. McCoy’s terms to two-years. That provision is part of broader legislation – Howard County 10-23 – that reduces the number of elected BOE members from seven members to five and granting authority to the Howard County Executive to appoint two members, based on recommendations from the county’s legislative delegation, beginning in 2024. Under the measure, three of the elected members would be chosen by state Senate districts as opposed to the current system of election by each of the five councilmanic districts and two members would be elected at large or countywide. (The Howard County BOE also has a student member that sixth through eleventh graders elect but the pending bill does not affect that position.)...
Judge Richard S. Bernhardt wrote in his opinion that the student member position is not in violation of the Maryland constitution...
...Eighteen of the 25 Maryland school boards don’t allow students to vote. However, most school boards in the Baltimore region, including the state board, have one student member who can vote on most topics...
...Therefore, since Bernhardt determined the student member isn’t elected, the argument over the member’s age isn’t valid since no age requirement exists for “nonelected members” in the Maryland constitution or state law...
...A month later, 128 former student school board members in Maryland weighed in on the lawsuit in an amicus brief submitted to the court, saying it the lawsuit is an “egregious attack” on student representation.
The brief, filed by Washington, D.C.-based law firm Venable LLP in hopes of influencing the court’s decision, argued the lawsuit was invalid because the student member is not elected, which was the same reasoning Bernhardt used in his opinion Thursday...
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (WJZ) — Police in Howard County have charged a Reservoir High School teacher and lacrosse coach with sexual abuse of a minor.
Stephanie Walzl, 29, of Manchester, was arrested for allegedly engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a female student...
