Breaking News

These are the 20 best travel destinations for summer 2024, according to Google Flight Searches 3 Google Maps updates to make summer travel easier SPACECENT is up the new war zone > United States Space Force > Article Display Tuberculosis — United States, 2023 | MMWR Thousands of US bridges are vulnerable to collapse from a single hit: NTSB Why don’t the Blazers or ROOT Sports offer standalone streaming? Up to 200,000 people estimated to travel to Vermont for total solar eclipse How fast will April’s total solar eclipse travel? The UN Security Council demands a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan Mexico in the emerging world order

The Killingly High School cross country team had a meet in Stonington earlier this month, starting at 4:30 p.m. The group left the school at noon on Wednesday to make the trip with only one bus.

“They arrived 3 hours and 15 minutes before the meeting,” Killingly athletic director Kevin Marcoux said.

It was a far from ideal situation, but it’s an unfortunate reality that many school districts across Connecticut continue to face when it comes to transporting student-athletes to sporting events. While the bus driver shortage has shown some improvement, some counties still need to take extra steps to get athletes to games by hiring outside companies, spending more money or scheduling games at different times.

For the Killingly group, the battle with five drivers of the bus company that serves the neighborhood due to illness escalated. Bus companies have largely been better staffed this year after shortages peaked over the past two school years, but a shortage of drivers could have far-reaching effects on daily bus routes, let alone sports-related transportation.

The lack of those drivers connected Marcoux with Norwich Free Academy, his opponent in a recent soccer game, to see if the school could provide transportation to Killingly. School administrators agreed and Killingly was able to provide transportation for his students to get home after the game. But it was another temporary solution.

Different companies, more money

Danbury High School athletic director Chip Salvestrini is among the administrators whose school district has looked outside the company it hires to find help transporting its athletes. Read also : YES:AM | What’s wrong with the Yankees?. And it’s an idea he’s gotten used to.

“While our district’s transit service is better this year, we’re a long way from where we need to be,” Salvestrini said. “Our district continues to support the use of outside companies, even though the costs of those buses may be three to four times what our district buses charge. However, if we don’t see significant improvement in getting more district buses when we need them later this school year , will be the funding for the current bus transportation. to pass the budget before the start of the spring season of 2023.”

The district has hired Elite Limousine, a Norwalk company, for more than half of its off-campus games in Danbury in September. Because the company hired in the neighborhood cannot take the teams to the games until 4:00 p.m. and Danbury has many games where the district has to get out of school by 2:30 p.m.

Using an outside company, however, comes at a cost. Salvestrini said that’s $600 more per event, or $24,600 more in September.

“I can’t speak for other school districts, but this is a huge red flag for us,” Salvestrini said. “The outside vendors serve us well. But we obviously don’t have the funding to handle athletics with outside carriers in any way.”

The cost similarly doubles (or more) when using a company that contracts with Weston schools, said Mark Berkowitz, the high school’s athletic director. The district increased the transportation fund by $7,000 this year, but it is unlikely to be enough.

“I didn’t know if we were going to be in as bad a situation as we are now in terms of transportation need, or if we were probably going to increase it a little bit more,” Berkowitz said.

Cheshire High also doubled its transportation costs, from $110,000 a year to $200,000 last school year.

“A regular school bus is about $250 for a typical competition, while a charter can be over $900,” athletic director Steve Trifone said. “We try to double the teams on the carts to make it cost-effective. Spring is usually the most expensive due to the number of contests played in the evenings when school buses are not available (they must be available for school field trips).

Derby High School athletic director Teg Cosgriff has rescheduled the games for another reason: the local company has to drop students off between 2 and 4 p.m. and does not have enough drivers available for sporting events.

“We move games later or secure other transportation services from outside vendors,” Cosgriff said. “Middle schools have the hardest times because it’s difficult for schools to move their games to later times. … The situation has not improved this year compared to the previous one”.

Also, Coginchaug High School students cannot attend away games until around 5:00 p.m. Todd Petronio, the Durham school’s athletic director, said district administrators didn’t want to let his students out early for games, and instead decided to delay start times.

“We feel like they’ve wasted so much time (in school) in the last two years,” Petronio said. “Last spring it was common to reject early, but it is not an acceptable practice. Looking at the bus trips over the past two weeks, we’ve probably moved 25 percent of our games to a different time or day. We usually don’t reach out to several outside companies. The cost of sending them far outweighs the inconvenience, so we move the games to a later start time or to a Saturday.’

See the article :
Video games have always been a big part of Alex Newhouse’s life.“They…

Doubling up

The problem with the bus is one that goes down. Read also : Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Gilead Sciences, CVS, Electronic Arts, and more. Already struggling with the varsity team, the junior varsity and freshman teams could feel the damage even more.

In addition to moving the varsity games to Saturday, Masuk High School athletic director Craig Semple said “he’s had to double up some smaller teams going in the same direction on a bus.”

Semple held the same role at Hand High School in Madison for the previous 18 years and in the past the bus company traveled to other towns “to help meet our needs, and the price was the same.” That is no longer a luxury with other towns and businesses facing similar problems.

On the other hand, Salvestrini and Oxford High School athletic director Joe Stochmal are among those who have moved to play more games on Saturday when bus companies have fewer conflicts.

“It hasn’t gotten better. Hopefully it will get better,” Stochmal said. “I’ve been told by Oxford (the bus company) that they’re doing a lot of hiring and some training. Hopefully, by late October or early November, they’ll have more drivers, but no guarantees.”

Brookfield was one of the hardest hit last fall. Athletic Director Steve Baldwin began using Carriage Limousine party buses in the spring of 2021. He often requested the party bus to transport Brookfield’s athletes to and from away games.

Baldwin said transportation has been much smoother so far this fall and he hasn’t had to use an outside company. But old habits die hard: Baldwin booked a Carriage Limousine and Land Jet on his busiest days, just in case.

“If I give it 24 hours, there’s no problem canceling it,” Baldwin said. “They have worked with us and have been understanding. Both companies have been excellent.”

joseph.morelli@hearstmediact.com; @nhrJoeMorelli

World Sports Honors 11-Time NBA All-Star Bill Russell
See the article :
The sports world lost a pioneering icon on Sunday with the death…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *