By Rupert Howell

School trustees formed an outline for a new school bus turnaround policy that will provide Panola County supervisors with a new list each September with unused turnarounds taken off the list on a monthly basis.

The action came at Tuesday’s monthly meeting of the school board when supervisors Cole Flint and Kelly Morris met with trustees and discussed at length current policies of their respective boards, state laws and way to streamline procedures while both transporting students to school and saving taxpayers money.

Part of Tuesday’s discussion centered around perceptions and actions of the past with all group members agreeing that nothing could change the past, but actions from these boards could changing future actions.

School bus turnarounds have long been perceived as a method to circumvent laws disallowing the use of county road crews and equipment on private property.

Also meeting with the group was South Panola Schools transportation director Scootie Murphree who said at the meeting, “We don’t abuse this policy… Just because there are 219 turnarounds on this list, we don’t work 20 percent of them. We only ask for work on those as needed and I check every turnaround. That’s my job.“

Flint emphasized that he only spoke for himself and did not represent the entire board, but he and board president Morris indicated they thought the supervisor board would be receptive to suggestions made during the meeting.

Flint also produced pictures of several different “drives” or bus turnarounds built with the county’s workforce in the name of school bus turnarounds.

Trustee Lygunnah Bean who also serves as the county’s road manager suggested that some of the incidents mentioned and pictured were done prior to his tenure with the road department stating that he was being, “stepfathered” in.

Bean also asked about areas that are private neighborhoods such as Enid Shores or Sardis Lake Estates that have school bus turnarounds located within.

Supervisor Morris indicated to Bean that he had the authority to work on the private roads in order to get to the turnaround.

Morris also mentioned that two six-foot culverts had been installed in the private neighborhoods costing Panola County approximately $7,000 each.

Murphree said poor road conditions at private neighborhoods was “tearing our buses up,” noting that two are sent to Enid Shores each day.

At one point Bean said that as road manager, he may reject future work orders to build turnarounds until the county’s engineer could make a determination of the extent of work needed.

Flint also noted that there was an abundance of school bus turnarounds in the North Panola District and that by working with the South Panola trustees, he was hopeful that North Panola trustees would also help.
Superintendent Keith Shaffer noted that the school bus fleet had 68 routes, “ … All starting and ending somewhere.”