School board drops proposal for bus radios
Planned contract drew
opposition from parents
By Antoinette Konz
The Courier-Journal
5/22/07
A proposal that would have put radios on all Jefferson
County Public Schools buses this fall was shelved by the
school board last night before it even came up for
consideration.
Moments after the Board of Education meeting convened,
Chairman Joe Hardesty announced that the board would not
be voting on a contract with Massachusetts-based Bus
Radio Inc. "now or in the foreseeable future." He said,
"The board received a lot of input from the community,
and based on what we heard, we decided this was not a
contract we wanted to consider."
The contract would have allowed the national company to
install and maintain radios on the buses and provide
age-appropriate music, commercials and public-service
announcements at no cost to the district.
The deal would have provided the district with up to
$150,000 annually in shared advertising revenue, and the
radios were to be equipped with Global Positioning
System devices allowing a driver to alert authorities to
the bus's location in an emergency.
Several parents spoke against the plan at last night's
meeting, some bringing signs to show their opposition.
Most decided to address the board even after the
contract was tabled.
Paula Wolf, president of Jefferson County's PTA, said if
the radios had been installed, parents would not have
had control over what their children were listening to.
"PTA opposes the exploitation of students through
commercial operations that require students to view
advertising or to study specific instructional programs
as a condition of the school's receiving a donation of
money or loan of equipment," Wolf said.
"My child is targeted enough without being bombarded on
the way to and from school."
Two child-advocacy groups -- the Campaign for a
Commercial-Free Childhood and Obligation Inc. -- also
sent letters to the school board asking it to be
cautious before agreeing to such a deal.
Under the proposed contract, each broadcast hour would
have had about 44 minutes of music and news, eight
minutes of advertising, six minutes of public-service
announcements and two minutes of contests.
The company's Web site on Sunday showed music for
students ages 6-12 included artists such as Kelly
Clarkson, Chris Daughtry and Diddy; for students ages
13-17, it included artists such as Fergie, Akon and
Omarion.
Cindy Weber, who has two children who ride the bus, said
she was shocked when she found the lyrics to some of the
songs and brought copies to board members.
Upon hearing how adamant the members were against the
proposal, Weber said she questioned why it was even
brought to them for their approval.
"I would have hoped that Superintendent (Stephen)
Daeschner would have squelched it before it became
public like this," she said. "It upsets me that the
administration would even consider selling access to the
minds of our children."
Incoming Superintendent Sheldon Berman, now chief of
Hudson Public Schools in Massachusetts, has said his
school board has a strict policy against advertisements,
which he supports.
Hardesty said he thinks the GPS devices are a nice
feature and something the board could consider in the
future, separate from any contract with a bus radio
company.
"Obviously, the GPS is a perk that this contract would
have provided, but the board felt the perceived
detriments of the radio on the bus outweighed the
benefits of having a GPS system," he said.
Rick Caple, the district's director of transportation,
said in an earlier interview that he felt the contract
was a "win-win situation." He said studies have shown
that music can soothe kids and provide a calmer bus
environment.
Caple was not available for comment after the meeting.
Daeschner said he would not comment on the board's
decision, referring all comments to Hardesty.