Bus report released by parish schools' committee member

Published Nov 22, 2011 at 3:20 pm (Updated Nov 22, 2011)

James Finney, a member of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System's transportation committee, has released an independent report on the system's bus system, with recommendations for improving it. "There are two problems with the status quo," says Finney, who based his report on data obtained through multiple public record requests. "Students are on the bus too long, and we spend too much money on buses that spend a significant amount of time parked." Finney outlines several recommendations in his report on how to improve the transportation of students, and also calls for increased transparency. "Taxpayers should be able to tell, without a public information request and hours of data analysis, how their investment in pupil transportation is being used," his report reads. "Transparency and communication should not only improve the support the system receives from the community, but generate cost-saving suggestions from the community." Finney has also compiled a list of properties owned by the school system and supplied a report on them. "The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board's records concerning real estate it owns appear to vary significantly from what other public records suggest the school system owns," Finney says of the report on his website, which you can access here to see the complete reports and recommendations. Finney says he's received limited feedback from the school board thus far on his findings. —Steve Sanoski