MINOT – The School Committee this week accepted the resignation of one school bus driver and learned that a second one has quit.

With the departure of two of the town’s five bus drivers within a matter of weeks, several parents and two students spoke up, seeking a fuller explanation of what’s going on.

One said the town is losing valuable people, while another asked what could be done to get a driver reinstated.

School Committee Chairman Lisa Sabatine said she had received several calls regarding the drivers but declined to elaborate. She said the board would discuss the matter in executive session.

At the meeting, Melissa Bellaire, who identified herself as the driver who had quit, questioned Superintendent Nina Schlikin regarding the meaning of terminated. “I wasn’t fired, I quit,” said Bellaire explaining that she had been given an ultimatum that she could not put up with.

‘We did not fire anyone’

“We did not fire anyone,” Schlikin agreed.

Schlikin added, however, that the word “terminated” nonetheless effectively described the parting of ways.

The other driver, Lewis Williams, in his letter of resignation effective Oct. 10, objected to the two letters of reprimand he received from Union 29 Operations Director Gordon Murray.

“Mr. Murray and I differ greatly as to approaches that can be used with respect to providing a safe environment on the bus. I cannot constantly worry whether every word or action meets Mr. Murray’s approval,” Williams wrote.

Coming out of a 20-minute executive session that followed its regular meeting, the School Committee took no action and made no comment on the bus drivers’ situation.

In his report, Murray noted that David Snell, supervisor of Minot bus drivers, is training a driver who will be a full-time route driver, and that he has contacted a second person who may want to pursue driving a bus for Minot.

Math scores

Principal Margaret Pitts reported that, in an effort to improve the school’s relatively weak math scores on MEA tests, Karen Nichols has organized a series of schoolwide morning math sessions. Each adult in the school will work with about eight students drilling them on math computations for 25 minutes every Friday morning.

Pitts noted that the school’s math program, while strong in teaching and understanding of how math works conceptually, is evidently weak on math facts.

Pitts said she believed the added drill work should correct the deficiency.

At School Committee member Steve Holbrook’s suggestion that the school consider going back to the “old math” that was strong on math facts, Schlikin said that learning results require students to be proficient in both drilled math facts and in math reasoning and, hence, she backed Pitts’ plan.