School Transportation Program Manager (Administrator V)

Position Summary

The School Transportation Program Manager (PM) must have a comprehensive working knowledge of school bus and school pupil laws, regulations and policies. The Program Manager has oversight of the two segments of School Transportation regulated by the RMV; School Bus and School Pupil. This includes the inspection of 9,000 school buses three times a year, the issuance of school bus certificates to credential school bus drivers and the school bus company record audits. The School Pupil transport is very much the same with oversight of the issuance of school transport certificates to properly licensed drivers and creating the program to ensure all 7D vehicles meet the legal requirements and are maintained. This is currently done by random compliance checks and company record audits of the school pupil transport companies. 

The Program Manager needs to create and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the school bus and school pupil credentialing and oversight process. In addition, a comprehensive catalogue of supporting policies needs to be created and maintained. A review of all existing policies and procedures needs to be conducted to ensure accuracy, increased modernization as well as standardization to ensure their integrity and consistency and that we are in compliance with the Laws and Regulations of Massachusetts and policies of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles.

The incumbent oversees the training material and process of school bus inspection procedures for all field staff to ensure relevance to modernizations within the vehicles and industry. There must be a SOP that includes documenting all training; interacts with school bus manufacturers, school bus companies, the RMV CDL Coordinator and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) on a regular basis always maintaining a keen awareness of changing industry practices and standards and communicating them to RMV management, staff, and the pupil transportation industry. The school pupil transportation industry is a key element of the position. Processes and procedures need to be put into place to ensure proper oversight of the school pupil companies, drivers and vehicles that must include regular communications with the industry, a comprehensive data base of the companies.

It also involves assisting the general public answering inquiries/questions pertaining to school transportation and role of the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The administrative staff of the school transportation driver certificate issuance and renewal process report directly to this program manager. A comprehensive knowledge of the certification laws, regulations and process is imperative to offer guidance and direction to the staff to ensure consistent and sound decisions. The field investigators conducting the school bus inspections are a shared resource and not a direct report to this position. Therefore, the School Transportation Program Manager needs to work closely with the Assistant Director for staff oversight. Documentation and maintenance of school transportation standard operating processes and policies are the responsibility of the PM to ensure that all are clearly documented and updated as necessary and held in the RMV database. Provide training requirements to the industry and develop a process for continual improvement as well as an auditing/oversight process to ensure that the curriculum is being followed.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Create and maintain the standards for conducting school bus inspections three times a year. Identify trends, policy or procedure updates needed to support introduction of new vehicle types Ensure all school buses are inspected three times a year during Aug/Sep, Jan/Feb and May/Jun; roughly 9,000 inspections per cycle, through use of data tools such as ATLAS and PowerBI to monitor the progress of the inspections. The PM will act as liaison with the school bus company when issues arise and work closely with the regional supervisors to ensure all inspections are scheduled. The PM will review school bus inspection results to analyze data for safety related trends and school bus company performance. Research