BANGOR SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

73 Harlow Street - Bangor, Maine 0440 I www.bangorschools.net

Betsy M. Webb Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools Alan F. Kochis Director of Business Services

207-992-4150 Fax: 207-992-4163 207-992-4160 Fax: 207-992-4163

August 30, 2011

The Honorable Susan Collins Senator Susan Collins 413 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Collins:

I am writing to support your proposed legislation to increase the truck weight limit on the interstate. As the Superintendent of the Bangor School Department, I have the responsibility of overseeing school-home transportation for nearly 4,000 students to ten different Bangor Schools. Our City has five PreK to Grade 3 schools, two Grade 4 & 5 schools, two Middle Schools including Grades 6-8, and one high school serving students in Grades 9-12. The PreK through Grade 8 schools are districted based on neighborhoods. In order to make our transportation routes to and from school safer, we fully support the larger trucks primarily traveling on the interstate and not throughout the City streets. The Bangor School Department has been rated as a higher performing and efficient school system through a Maine State Legislature funded study completed by David Silvernail at the Center for Educational Policy Applied Research and Evaluation (CEPARE). In addition, the Bangor School Department has : been used as a model for transportation efficiency and effectiveness in the Maine School funding formula called Essential Programs and Services (EPS). One of the main reasons, our transportation to and from school is efficient and effective is due to our policy of setting walking distances. Students in K-Grade 3 walk to school if they live within one mile from the _school. .Students in Grades 4-8 walk to school if they live within 0Ile and a half mile from school and students in Grades 9-12 that live within one and three quarter miles walk to school. Therefore, numerous Bangor students are walking to and from, school and navigating busy intersections of city roads in which these 100,000 pound trucks are traveling because they cannot be on the interstate.

The Bangor Police Department does provide crossing guards for students in kindergarten through Grade 5. The former crossing guard provider, Seacoast Security, shared that they provided specialized training for the crossing guards regarding large trucks on city streets. These trucks take longer to stop and start which impacts the safety of the students. Further, young children are often intrigued by large trucks and some have been known to dart out into the road trying to get the truck driver to honk the horn. Students in Grades 6 - 12 must cross without the assistance of a guard. Both of these situations are of concern for students' safety. Cyr Bus is our contracted bus provider. One of the managers was recently interviewed about the truck limit and larger trucks being on the city streets. The manager immediately identified Hammond Street as a problematic area. She asked that these trucks be removed from this area due to their slow traffic patterns. In addition, the weight of the trucks causes potholes and street damage. Wheelchair bound students, even when strapped in on the bus, are bounced around and this creates an extremely uncomfortable and potentially unsafe bus ride. Thank you, Senator Collins, for your dedication and effort to rectify this safety situation in Maine. Please know that school children throughout the State will be in safer environments when traveling to and from school if this legislation is passed.