Polk County Bus 1319 between hours 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm 10/25/2021 was in line at a drive-thru food bank – Lakes Church on Memorial Blvd, Lakeland.
According Superintendent Frederick Heid, Based on your email we reviewed the GPS data and we see where she entered the church parking lot at approximately 4:34 PM and left the church parking lot at approximately 5:54 PM.
Per video the bus was ever turned off but Heid states GPS listed her as idling approximately 26 minutes in the line at the church.
Heid stated in the email, the driver lives approximately 20 to 25 minutes away from the Lakes Church. Driving to her home and back she would have likely missed out. The church drive thru food bank is operational from 4:30-6:30 on Monday only.
We asked more questions: Our questions in black, Heid’s answer in red
Was the driver on the clock the time then the bus was at the church?
No. The driver had completed her final drop-off.
You stated that the bus was idling for 26 min’s but it was running for 1 hour and 20 min’s in the church inline????
Our tracking software data shows the bus idled for 26 minutes during the time frame the bus was in line at the church. The team can certainly double-check this finding if needed, but historically this data is very accurate. Someone behind a bus may consider the bus running due to the strobe light being on with the bus off and the key in the accessory position.
How much gas, payroll, insurance and etc. were pilfered? Who is paying for it? As outlined previously, there was no impact on payroll.
Transportation will provide the exact burn rate of fuel for this year model bus. The district will be reimbursed for the amount of fuel consumed. No additional pay was gained while the driver was in line. There is no impact to insurance. However, to be clear, drivers are allowed to make stops per their contract. The drivers handbook outlines De Minimis use, and this has been allowed for drivers on their way home since we do not compound school buses. They are authorized to stop at a location to pick up milk and bread as an example on their route home.
Driver’s Training Manual addresses de minimis use. This can be found on page 163. The manual is attached. For your convenience, this section has also been copied below (see highlighted excerpt):
I am not to use the bus for personal reasons, except as noted in Unit XII School Bus Field Trips and for de minimums use when driving from the last stop of my run or field trip to my assigned parking location. Example: Stopping at a store for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk on the way to my parking location would be permissible. Stopping to purchase a weeks worth of groceries would not be permissible.
Regarding this situation, the driver deviated from her normal route home to travel to a church’s drive-thru food bank. This was not allowable as de minimis use. As a result, she has been instructed that this is not permissible. The Transportation Department calculated the approximate fuel consumption cost to be $10. This cost has been reimbursed to the school district.
A FOOD BANK!!!! This driver needed to stop for food and some petty citizen called him/her out on that? Good grief people. I’d like to know if there is some way for me to reimburse this driver the $10 gas charge. These drivers put up with rude, defiant, noisy children every day and deliver them safely to their destinations and some nosey adult reports them for stopping at a food bank? My mind is blown!!!
Worry about Heid and CRT and masks and vaccines that are unconstitutional!!! Stop bitching about $10 of fuel! Really??? Start fighting for the children and their well being!!!
Wow! If Polk County drivers and attendants were paid a livable wage they wouldn’t have to stop at food banks!!!
People need to mine their own business and they. I do agree that people are very nosey and they don’t have a life cause they can’t live peacefully in the world
Leave her alone, she might have kids that need that food.mind you on business mosey.
She would have used same amount of gas or more to go home and back. She just went to get food! She didn’t do a drug run or anything blatant out of line. It was food! Some people just are so unhappy. Perhaps they should actually go inside and find Jesus, hand out some of that food! I was there once. Going to a food bank is embarrassing. She obviously needed it and now make her pay $10! If she had it she wouldn’t be going to food bank!