The same day the Miami Herald and The Tributary published its investigation into the Miami-Dade school district’s school bus safety program, superintendent Jose Dotres issued a memo addressing criticism of the program. In his memo released Friday, he instructed Ivan Silva, the chief of Miami-Dade Schools Police to work with the county sheriff’s office to fix the citation review process.
The Miami Herald/Tributary investigation revealed not only that drivers were being issued bogus tickets that many were unable to challenge, but also that the contract with BusPatrol, the company that administers the program, was signed in a hasty manner by the school district, without a bidding process. The contract, which generates revenue for the district, was signed just 12 days after the board asked staff to do a “feasibility study” on the program.
The program is a partnership between the school district, BusPatrol and the Miami-Dade sheriff’s office. And while most of the parties to the partnership agree that the program needs fixing, there’s no consensus as to how that will get done…