WEATHERSFIELD District to check bus ridership

The board put in place some returning and new bus drivers.
MINERAL RIDGE -- Weathersfield Local Schools will be doing a final count at the end of this week to determine how many pupils are riding its buses.
The buses began rolling again Nov. 8 for all district pupils after the passage Nov. 2 of an emergency five-year 5.5-mill levy to generate $538,168 annually.
Superintendent Michael Hanshaw said the state has allowed the district an extension of its usual October deadline, to month's end, to provide a tally of the number of pupils riding district buses.
Seven full-time bus drivers and nine buses, which include two spares, were brought back after the levy passed, and the district expanded its busing back to outside of a 2-mile limit.
Only 95 pupils who live two miles or more away were bused after the program was cut back in January.
Actions taken
The board of education moved Wednesday to make some bus driver-related employee changes:
UTransferring Connie Maiorana from the middle school evening custodian to a bus driver classification, effective Nov. 8 at a rate of $17.21 an hour. She had been a bus driver who was laid-off and then went to the custodial position.
UTransferrred Sherry Rummell from high school cafeteria worker to bus driver classification, as of Thursday, at $17.21 an hour.
UHired Tom Houser as a bus driver at $16.71 an hour as of Thursday, a newly hired driver.
UTransferred Bob Whittaker, who had been laid off as a bus driver, from the bus driver classification to the middle school evening custodian classification at $15.59 an hour as of Thursday.
The superintendent also told the board that the high school has received its second commendation from the Ohio Board of Education for ranking as an "excellent" school in the 2003-04 state proficiency tests.
The school ranked 18 out of 18 categories on proficiency tests that were given to ninth-graders. Seaborn Elementary and the middle school both received "continuous Improvement" classifications.
At the high school, ninth-grade students are tested on English, math, writing, citizenship and science and passed in all areas; met attendance rate standards; and number of graduates as defined in state standards.