Inspection finds nearly half of Alpine School District buses unsafe. Amy McDonald. Heraldextra.com

Technicians Don Harman and Ron Alvey balance the wheels of a school bus at the Alpine School District Transportation Depot in American Fork on Friday, Nov. 7, 2014. The district's six technicians are tasked with maintaining 311 buses. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald

ALPINE -- In state-mandated inspections performed by the Utah Highway Patrol, nearly half of the school buses used in Alpine School District have been deemed unsafe.

Completed in October, UHP’s inspections placed 45 percent of Alpine’s buses “out of service,” meaning officials found a variety of defects based on criteria that requires buses to be repaired before transporting kids again.

The percentage of out-of-service buses in Nebo School District was about 8 percent, and in Provo City School District was about 5 percent.

Alpine, the largest and fastest-growing school district in the state, also has the highest rate of buses out of service in the state, according to Sgt. Jason Kelsey, a UHP officer who oversees the bus inspections in Utah County.

“Surely something in Alpine district is broken," Kelsey said. "You don’t need to talk to a driver to figure that out. Just look at the reports."

But the district’s transportation department sees things differently.

“The challenge we face is that we are the fastest-growing district in the state,” said John Patten, assistant to Alpine’s superintendent. “We face an aging fleet of buses and we try to get our money’s worth from each bus.

"That’s great for taxpayers, but everyone wants to know our kids are safe.”

Why Alpine’s performance is poor is a puzzle, with the biggest piece being the mechanic-to-bus ratio.

The National Association for Pupil Transportation recommends a 24-to-1 bus-to-mechanic ratio. Alpine’s ratio is more than double that at 52-to-1, said Jeremy Wardle, who manages Alpine’s fleet of 311 buses.

“In the classroom, when class levels reach a certain ratio, the district hires a new teacher,” Wardle said. “Every year we buy more buses but don’t increase our mechanical staff. We get spread thinner and thinner, until we just can’t keep up.

"My solution would be a recommendation to establish a minimum ratio of 25-to-1 to adequately maintain buses.”

The district recently approved funding for one more bus mechanic, which will bring the ratio down to about 45-to-1. But that’s still far above the second highest ratio in the state, which Kelsey said is about 31 buses per mechanic.

District transportation departments are funded partially by the state, but money also comes from unrestricted funds allocated by the school board. All parties agree more funding could solve the problem.

Of course, transportation isn't the only area that needs more funding.

“The reality is you can put a dipstick into any area of the school district and pull it out and say, why aren't you addressing this need? From teacher salaries to administrator-to-student ratio,” Patten said.

But funding isn't the only answer. Kelsey said UHP has done several training sessions with Alpine School District, but drivers continually fail to do pre-trip inspections, which they are required to do each morning.

If 120 Alpine buses have been deemed unsafe by UHP officers, an important question is whether those buses are used to transport Alpine’s students.

UHP’s Kelsey said he is “sure that occurs on a regular basis,” especially so soon after the inspection. But Wardle said he wouldn’t let children ride on an unsafe bus.

The answer, then, depends on who you ask what “safe” means.

The criteria for “out-of-service” buses is determined by UHP, the Utah Department of Transportation and the Utah State Office of Education, and includes an extensive list of problems of varying severity that make a bus unsafe for riders. If a bus has just one problem, the bus is placed “out-of-service” and should not be used to transport pupils until the problem or problems are fixed.

Some of those problems are serious, like defective brakes or a cracked axle. Others could be interpreted as minor, like a loading light that’s burned out or a driver’s seat that isn’t adjusting properly.

Kelsey, who has worked in school bus safety for eight years, said he doesn’t think any of the criteria are minor.

“All those standards are worth it, in my opinion,” he said. “Are there out-of-service items that some mechanic could look at and say it’s not a big deal? I guess a mechanic could say that. ... But UHP isn’t OK with it.”

But Wardle said that to declare 45 percent of Alpine’s buses unsafe on the road is “unfair.”

“It’s more accurate to have a better criteria system rather than say they’re ‘out-of-service,’ " Wardle said. “To consider anything that’s out-of-service to be life-threatening is really unfair.”

He said many of the out-of-service items that make a bus unusable are easy to fix. And he worries UHP inspections aren’t consistent — some buses get labeled out-of-service, but others with similar problems don’t.

There is no legal method for UHP to enforce the requirement that out-of-service buses not transport kids, even though it does pull off the road all commercial vehicles that violate the same standards.

The districts are given 15 days to repair the out-of-service buses, but even if they do so, there is no avenue for reporting those repairs. Follow-up inspections aren’t performed.

Amy McDonald. Heraldextra.com.