State red flags many local school buses.

September 14, 2017

State red flags many local school buses.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

The Michigan State Police recently released its 2016-2017 school bus inspection report. With the exception of Manistee Catholic Central School’s one bus, every school district in Mason, Lake, Manistee, and Oceana counties had buses that were “red flagged” by the state police, meaning during the inspection those buses were found to be in an unsafe condition. Michigan law requires the repair of all red tag items before placing that bus back into passenger service. Several districts also had buses that were “yellow flagged” meaning the school buses were found in an unsatisfactory condition, but are safe for operation. These school buses by law must be repaired within 60 days of the original inspection date.

The schools that had a majority of their bus fleet yellow flagged or red flagged included Baldwin Community Schools, FiveCap, Hesperia Community Schools, Ludington Area Schools, Pentwater Public Schools, and Shelby Public Schools. In the case of Pentwater Public Schools, non of its five buses passed.; 24 out of FiveCap’s 28 buses were flagged, 20 of them red; and 11 out of Ludington Area Schools’ 21 buses were flagged, 10 of them red flagged.

Mason County Central Schools, with the largest public school bus fleet, only had two of its 15 buses flagged. A few years ago the district made state headlines for having a large number of buses red flagged. Since that time, the school district has switched over to leasing its buses. The buses are scheduled to be replaced on a rotational basis every 3 years.

  • Baldwin Community Schools: 0 passed, 0 yellow, 2 red, 2 total.
  • FiveCap: 4 passed, 4 yellow, 20 red, 28 total.
  • Hart Public School District: 13 passed, 3 yellow, 3 red, 19 total.
  • Hesperia Community Schools, 3 passed, 1 yellow, 14 red, 18 total.
  • Bear Lake Schools: 6 passed, 0 yellow, 0 red, 6 total.
  • Kaleva Norman Dickson School District 10 passed, 0 yellow, 1 red, 11 total.
  • Ludington Area Schools: 10 passed, 1 yellow, 10 red, 21 total.
  • Manistee Area Public Schools: 14 passed, 1 yellow, 5 red, 20 total.
  • Manistee Catholic Central: 1 passed, 0 yellow, 0 red, 1 total.
  • Mason County Central Schools: 15 passed, 0 yellow, 2 red, 17 total.
  • Mason County Eastern Schools: 4 passed, 0 yellow, 6 red, 10 total.
  • Onekama Consolidated Schools: 4 passed, 0 yellow, 1 red, 5 total.
  • Pentwater Public Schools: 0 passed, 2 yellow, 3 red, 5 total.
  • Shelby Public Schools: 5 passed, 0 yellow, 10 red, 15 total.
  • Walkerville Public School: 4 passed, 1 yellow, 2 red, 7 total
  • West Shore Educational Service District, 11 passed, 2 yellow, 2 red, 15 total.

Michigan’s school buses are inspected on a cycle beginning each September 1 and ending each August 31.

See the complete listing here.

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