There have been several comments on this blog about I-SS employees being allowed to drive school vehicles back and forth to their homes. I recently requested and received a list of I-SS employees who have been provided vehicles as outlined in the school policy code 7612 Employer Provided Vehicles. The list also included vehicles that were not assigned to a particular individual.
The I-SS vehicle policy reads as follows.
The Iredell-Statesville Board of Education will provide transportation for employees in the normal performance of their duties as determined by the Superintendent or designee. Such transportation shall be provided by assigning vehicles on a permanent or daily basis.
The permanent assignment of vehicles will be limited to those persons whose normal duties as determined by the Superintendent, or his designee, to require the use of a vehicle at other than the normal business hours of the central office or required frequently for emergency situations. The permanent assignment of vehicles requires the employee to commute in the vehicle for valid business reasons. This policy prohibits personal use other than commuting except De Minimis Nontaxable Personal Use as defined by the IRS.
The vehicle list I received included 133 school maintained vehicles. Of those 133 vehicles, 102 are assigned to specific school employees. The list also indicates if an employee is allowed to drive his/her assigned car home. Of the 102 I-SS employees who are assigned a school vehicle, 87 of them are allowed to drive their assigned vehicle home. Of course this means that the school is not only providing a car to be driven home but is also paying for the gas and the maintenance of these cars. As has been pointed out in one of the comments to an earlier post on this blog, a number of these individuals do not live in Iredell County.
I understand that a certain number of school employees will need access to a school vehicle at odd hours of the day. For example, a maintenance employee may have to go to a school building after hours if there is a plumbing or heating/AC problem. But, will that require 35 different maintenance employees? That is the number of maintenance employees allowed to drive school vehicles home. And, how many Drivers ED instructors have to come back to school to give emergency driving lessons to students? There are 15 Drivers ED instructors who are allowed to drive school vehicles home.
I don’t have any information on the number of miles driven by I-SS employees as they go back and forth between school and home each day. But, if most of the 87 employees allowed to do so actually use the vehicles this way each day, that will add up to a lot of miles each year. And it is not just the miles to drive home and back. Is I-SS using these 133 vehicles wisely and is anyone actually accounting for the use of each of these vehicles?
I-SS Vehicle List:
Some of the people on this list live in other counties. How can anyone justify the use of an I-SS vehicle to drive home to another county. Since Baldrige is all into data, someone needs to add up the daily miles of the over 100 home drivers. Why are all those tech people driving cars home? If you go over to ADR they are all over there most of the time instead of working at schools.
ReplyDeleteThis is unreal! The system are telling us they need funding when they are not checking this type of waste. How can the system expect the county commissioners to fund when there is waste.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the rate they compensate people for milage, but I'm sure it's pennies per mile. Wouldn't that be more cost effective if indeed a person had to respond to an emergency?
ReplyDeleteIf the alarm goes off, the principal goes to the school to reset it. It's just one of the things they have to do, part of the job description. Are they going to get vehicles next?
And why do we have so many unassigned vehicles?
I am a good friend of one of the technicians. Not sure why this person (June 11: 8:21pm) thinks they have to be at a school to repair computers. My friend tells me they have what they call bench repair and they work on computers at ADR because that's where they have spare parts. So it looks to me that they are doing their jobs. Each technician has over 1000 computers to maintain. That appears to me to be a very large number for each one of them. They also take apart computers and save the parts that can be reused.
ReplyDeleteAnother point, I have been told they also will go to a school together to efficiently make repairs and when there are problems that call for more than one person. They will carpool rather than drive individual vehicles. Thus a "white car" at ADR does not necessarily mean the person is there. I have been told no one drives a car home out of the county from tech. Drive by at night or on the weekend and you will see a "white car" there. So if any department is conscious of efficiency and ways to save money - it's the tech dept!
10:47 no principals are assigned a car so that comment isn't really valid
ReplyDeleteThe point is that principals use their own vehicles in case of an emergency. Why are Dale Ellis, Todd Holden, the tech or maintain or driver's ed people not able to do the same thing? Why do they have to drive the cars home? Think of how much money they spend in gas getting back and forth to work everyday, plus the extra milage on the car, especially if they live out of the county.
ReplyDeleteI would assume it is because their positions require so much travel over Iredell county that it doesn't make sense to drive the car back and forth to Central Office to park it daily.
ReplyDeleteWhat part of Dale Ellis's or Todd Holden's job requires them to travel over Iredell county so much that they need a car supplied to them to do their job? The few times that they are out of the CO, using their own car should just be expected. When teachers have to go to ADR for training, central office to fill out something, or any number of other places that they need to go, no one supplies them with cars.
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain that Dale Ellis spends a lot of time in the schools during the spring when working on teacher positions. Since Todd is the director of secondary education I would think one of his primary roles includes being in the middle and high schools often. Also, just because they can take the vehicle home doesn't mean they do it on a daily basis. Use some common sense here...
ReplyDeleteHaving a free vehicle saves a person more than just the cost of the vehicle. It also saves that person the cost of gas, the cost of maintenance, and the cost of insurance. It is such a recognized perk that the IRS considers it a taxable benefit. One would assume that all administrators with free vehicles are paying for this benefit when they file their taxes. If not, big trouble on back taxes due! But just as expensive as the free vehicles are for I-SS, I would imagine that free cell phones are even more expensive. Has anyone ever examined whether the free cell phones are used exclusively for business purposes? Do other school systems provide free cell phones and free vehicles to their employees, all of whom are making in excess of $100,000 per year? A comparison with other school districts might shed some light. I know Cabarrus County does not supply free vehicles, but I have no knowledge of other surrounding counties.
ReplyDeleteCabarrus County doesn't provide any vehicles for employees? I find that hard to believe....proof?
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago Rowan County stopped allowing vehicles to go home and they report saving LOTS OF MONEY!!! Proof, contact Rowan if you do not believe the post!
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense that by not allowing so many employees to drive cars home, the system would save money. Instead of cutting teacher jobs, supplements, and materials, the CO should first cut unnecessary driving. Let's all contact board members and make the suggestion that they address that issue before approving the budget.
ReplyDeleteI asked a friend in Catawba County who asked their admin office and they DO NOT provide cars for admin. The maintenance dept does have vehicles but they are NOT driven home. The tech people have vehicles to drive to schools but they DO NOT drive them home, plus they are assigned to schools and are expected to be at their schools to take care of technology issues. Since we are data driven - do the calculations.
ReplyDeleteThose of you who have contacts in other counties - do they also provide free cell phones? Has anyone asked I-SS to show that employees do not use their cell phones for personal calls? I'm sure not, because I have heard administrators use them for personal calls. If I didn't have the monthly expense of 1) a car and 2) a cell phone - I would save about $400 per month.
ReplyDeleteThe blatant, in-your-face classicism of this is nauseating. Teachers work tirelessly and are paid mere pittances in comparison to the opulent perks and salaries of those in leadership --who should be leading by example--all those who have tax-payer provided cars and cellphones should voluntarily refuse use of these unnecessary amenities. And if they don't, then the BoE should vote to remove this perk. How nice it would be not to have to pay my cellphone bill each month!!
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for those in control to act more responsible adults and less like greedy toddlers, screaming gimme more, gimme more, gimme more.
(A caveat, the toddlers don't know any better yet...)
should be -- classism
ReplyDeleteTo Anon June 13, 2010 10:35 PM - are you being sarcastic when you made the comment about Dale Ellis being in the schools? Would everyone who has seen him in your school post the name of the school! Short list!
ReplyDeleteAll the IFs have blackberries and they message each other continuously. Let's ask for a list of everyone with blackberries and the cost per year. Why do they need blackberries???
ReplyDeleteWell folks, now the system is advertising for AIG coordinators. OK now let me get this straight, as a classroom teacher I have my IF, tech coordinator now an AIG coordinator to deal with. Where do they find the money for all these coordinators positions - I want one ;-)
ReplyDelete