Longtime JT bus director set to retire

Jim Thorpe Area School District’s director will retire in January after 26 years with the district.

Lauren “Laurie” Mundinger started as a bus driver, and rose through the ranks to lead the transportation department for the last six-and-a-half years.

The school board agreed Wednesday night to accept Mundinger’s retirement effective Jan. 2, 2020.

Board members broke into applause after voting to approve her retirement date.

Wilmer Redline smiled as he said he was voting against it. Clement McGinley and Michael Principe said they were reluctantly accepting the idea.

“Laurie, you’ve done a great job,” McGinley said.

Mundinger said she has been planning to retire for over a year. When the school board decided they would shift to a single transportation contractor, she decided to stay on to help with the transition.

“I’ve been thinking about it for about a year. I wanted to make sure with the new bus contract that we got the year started off OK,” she said.

Mundinger said she enjoyed helping students get to and from school and events safely. She has always taken parents’ concerns very seriously and tried to accommodate their requests.

“The only thing we can do is keep the line of communication open between the parents and the school and the contractor. So everybody’s on the same page,” she said.

This year, the department faced a new challenge with a sole transportation provider after two contractors split the district for many years. The school board decided to choose one provider because it will save $1.6 million over the next five years.

Mundinger said that she and the contractor are working together to make sure that the bus service runs smoothly.

“We’ve had a few challenges, it’s straightening itself out. We just had to iron out some of the wrinkles but I think it’s getting better day by day and we’re off to a good start,” she said.

She plans to use her retirement to spend time with her husband, grandchildren and mother.

The district has not announced any plans for a replacement.

Bus monitors

The district’s bus contractor, Brandywine Carbon Transportation, plans to hire four bus monitors to assist drivers.

The school board voted to pay the bus company $30,000 so they can hire four monitors to ride school buses in the 2019-20 school year.

District officials said there have been behavior issues on the buses this year.

The bus monitors will ride different buses as needed to deal with behavior issues that the driver cannot.

Walter Schlenner of Brandywine Carbon said both the Penn-Kidder and Jim Thorpe areas of the district have bus routes which need additional supervision.

“You can alternate these monitors from bus to bus from time to time to keep everyone in line,” he said.

The bus monitors were not included in the transportation contract which the board approved last month. The board’s attorney said there would be a new agreement.

Board member Ronnie Marciante, participating in the meeting by video chat, said the district should consider contacting parents whose children are misbehaving on the bus or possibly take further steps.

“In the student handbook the students are required to behave on the bus. If they do not, they can lose that privilege to be on the bus,” Marciante said.