First off, thank you for supporting this cause! Please consider sharing this petition repeatedly until we have more clear information that the North Haven Board of Education has begun moving forward to vet other bus companies!

I spoke at the BOE meeting last night (below is my message). There were also some passionate bus drivers at this meeting that spoke as well. Or they tried to.
These drivers spoke about their love for the children that ride their buses and had some ideas and concerns on how to improve efficiency with routes and safety. Obviously these drivers care and are likely very good at what they do and I thank them for being at the meeting last night! 

But the driver’s message was pushed down by the board because their message should be and needs to be directed to their management team and to the owner group of M&J Bus. A strong company and management team (no matter what the business) should be able to listen to the people they hire, take advantage of their experience and expertise and implement those ideas when appropriate. This has been my message (and others) from day 1! M&J Bus is not listening to their great bus drivers! 
I was surprised the drivers that were their were so angry at myself and others that spoke against M&J Bus. If anything, those passionate and good drivers should be proud of themselves and just as angry at the company they work for! It’s because of the lack of leadership and strong management that they are in this situation in the first place!!

Thanks again and my message from last night is below!

Good evening.

Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight.    Some of you may know me but I would imagine most of you do not.     Let me introduce myself. My name is Jason Kyle. I am the general sales manager for a company I work at with multiple locations throughout New England. I’m a leader at the organization I work for.  

My wife and I moved to North Haven from New Haven back in 2014. My wife, a schoolteacher in New Haven, is in her 20th year. We have two sons in the North Haven School system. One of them is 11 in the middle school and the other one is at Clintonville and will be 8 at the end of this month.

I’d like to think my wife and I are leaders in our community just like we are leaders in our professions. We assist our neighbors anyway we can and encourage my sons to do the same as well. I am on the clean energy task force for North Haven. I have been volunteering as a coach for my younger son’s baseball team for a few seasons now and if anyone wants to know, our fall ball 10U team is 5-0! I also volunteer to assist my older son’s 6 grade football team whenever I can and anyway I can. But to be honest, I know a lot more about baseball than I do about football.

So, now that you know a little about myself, I’d like to address something I understand has been a topic of much conversation with the Board of Education for some time now. I also understand what I’m about to say most of you are already aware of. I bring no new light to this conversation. Instead, I bring a new voice. 

M&J Bus Company has struggled to provide acceptable transportation services for many years. They continue to blame the national bus driver shortage. The driver shortage is a problem, but all bus companies are facing this issue and managing it differently. More effectively! Many parents in town have the perception this bus company is not focused on attracting and retaining drivers. Further, it is more evident that the training of the driver staff to better manage and operate the buses, as well as the bus environment, has been ineffective. 

I’m a sales guy so when I say perception, that meansreality for myself. 

Without enough drivers, bus routes are being combined and our good drivers are being worked to the max and stressed out. The buses are overcrowded and the routes are way too long. Some children are on the bus for over an hour. Buses and vans are not showing up to stops on time, not showing up to schools on time at arrival and dismissal. All of this is affecting people’s jobs and childcare arrangements but most importantly, our children! 

Regardless of the driver shortage, M&J Bus Company is perceived in much of the community’s eyes as not providing the level of service the children and parents of this town need and expect them to provide. My family in particular moved to North Haven because we knew the school system was better than the one we lived in. 

When parents call M&J Bus Company with concerns they are met with short answers and rude responses from the bus company. Communication is lacking when the company knows delays are expected. We as taxpayers, pay this company millions of dollars and they need to be constantly supervised and micromanaged by our Superintendent. I would only assume I am in the majority when I say our Superintendent should be spending his time doing other things. 

Moreover, M&J Bus Company’s perceivedincompetence in the hiring and training of drivers has led to some very serious safety issues. From pulling away from the stop prior to students getting to a seat to AS serious as children being left alone sleeping on a bus at the end of a route. M&J Bus Company has had numerous opportunities to make changes. They came up with new policies and procedures they said they would follow and don’t seem to. They changed management in an effort to improve operations, yet it has not improved significantly if at all. 

M&J Bus Company’s contract with North Haven is for the rest of this school year as well as the 2024-2025 school year. But the parents of this town feel as though enough is enough! Our children deserve a safe and timely trip back and forth to school. Families deserve better communication. 

I started an online petition on Saturday and admittedly, I am no social media expert nor did I walk door to door for signatures. I posted a few times sharing the petition and within a couple days have gotten 130 signatures. In my mind, this number is light. There have been several conversations with parents of school aged children who have told me their kids don’t ride the bus because they gave up on dealing with the issues from M&J Bus Companie’s service and all the issues mentioned. There have been a few that have told me they can’t sign it for fear of retaliation. There is also a group of people that would just rather leave it alone because they feel, if the Board of Education and the Town of North Haven has let this go on for so long, nothing will change and I’m wasting my time.

I refuse to except status quo! 

I refuse to believe nothing can be done!

I truly feel action can be taken!

Action – that’s a dynamic word!! I understand action has been taken in some regards to this situation, and I acknowledge this. I thank you, the Board of Education, for the action . . . but at this point, we need to do more. 

I understand it will be difficult. Change always is. But if it is needed change. If it is the right change, it will be worth it. 

I also understand when a contract is broken or even when bus providers change in towns, it is messy. But I also know, in most cases, the change is the equipment, the management and sometimes, the location. Other then that, most bus drivers and the technicians that work on them are offered positions with the new in coming company. 

Our problem isn’t with the people driving the buses or the mechanics fixing them. The problems are with the management and operations that is lacking in the M&J School Bus yard.