Stricter Mail Policy, Monthly Driver Checks Implemented in MERS District

Superintendent John J. Marciante Jr. announced tightened regulations at the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School (MERS) District Board of Education meeting last night in order to guarantee that another district employee is not working when they should not be. The district will now have status updates on all bus drivers monthly and has increased regulation on their mail delivery procedure.

These changes were motivated by into a light pole.  Kristy Tufte, 34, of Manalapan, was subsequentlys resulting from three separate bench warrants.

Administration later discovered that Tufte should have been taken off the road some time ago, after the Criminal History Review Unit had sent a letter to the district about Tufte’s “ineligibility for employment” due to her suspended license.

The Motor Vehicle Commission informed the Criminal History Revew Unit of the suspension, who then contacted the district. Unfortunately, while the letter was signed for by a district employee, it was never placed in Tufte’s personnel file and she was not removed from her bus route.

Marciante insists that the person who signed for the letter is not responsible for not placing it in Tufte’s file.  An investigation revealed that up to eight different individuals, three administrative and five staff members, could have had contact with the package that was misplaced.

Prior to the bus accident, all delivered mail packages were deposited outside of the Board room of the , where they were signed for by the first staff member the delivery man could find.

Therefore, a signature of a package reaching the administration building only guaranteed that the package reached the building; it did not determine who was responsible for the item being misplaced.

The administration of the MERS district have implemented a new procedure where all packages and correspondence must be logged in by the staff member who signed for it. As the package is delivered to the person it is addressed, each employee who comes into contact with the package must record that they were in contact with the package in a log. Finally, when the addressee receives the package intended for them, they will sign their name in the log.

The Criminal History Review Unit does not follow up on cases stemming from the Motor Vehicle Commission, but only follows up on criminal cases, which is why the district was not contacted for not removing Tufte from her bus her route. However, the Criminal History Review Unit does send an e-mail to the County Certification Department and a letter is sent to the County Transportation Department, according to Marciante.

The Monmouth County Office of the Department of Education told Marciante yesterday that they never received an e-mail from the County Certification Department or a letter from the County Transportation Department. Marciante said that this information was given to an investigator from the Motor Vehicle Commission last week.

The Monmouth County Office of the Department of Education does send the district’s Human Resources Department an e-mail twice a month informing them of which individuals need to be removed from their positions due to certification or license issues, the superintendent said.

“Since the County did not receive the e-mail from the Criminal History Review Unit this backup to the letter did not function,” Marciante said. Tufte’s name was not mentioned in any of the previous e-mails sent by the County to the Human Resources Department either.

In terms of status updates, Marciante initially announced to the public that he wanted to perform status updates quarterly, rather than yearly as is the current policy. Based on recommendations from various Board Members and requests from parents, Marciante decided to run a status check on the bus drivers every month.

Marciante said he will be following up with the State’s investigation on the matter and he said that once he hears any new information he will inform the public.