Newtown’s Owner-Operators Launch Appeal To Public For Support

By John Voket

Newtown may be coasting through the lazy, hazy days of early summer, but a group of local school bus owners are hoping to mobilize parents and taxpayers to advocate on their behalf to the local Board of Education so they can keep their buses and local small business enterprises rolling after the next school year ends.

The local owner-operators’ contracts to provide general student transportation to Newtown’s public schools expires on June 30, 2012, and the school district has gone out to bid for a better rate for those services. Those bids were opened June 24, with a consortium of owner-operators bidding $11,728,895 to hold onto their jobs.

The lowest bid, however, was tendered by the Newtown-based MTM Transportation, which agreed to provide comparative services for $9,957,902. Three other bus companies also tendered bids lower than the owner-operators, with Dattco bidding $11,405,584, First Student bidding $11,049,663, and All-Star bidding $10,207,896.

But the local service providers are hoping the school board takes a number of other factors into consideration besides the bottom line, according to the group’s spokesperson Carey Schierloh. And the group is making a public appeal for residents to contact school board officials on their behalf through a social media website, and by offering supporters a chance to sign an online petition.

The group has also taken out a half-page ad in this week’s Bee, providing information about their 80-year tradition of service and letting supporters know how they can access the school district’s website to e-mail elected school board leaders.

“Our bid is in the ballpark,” Ms Schierloh said. “We’re hoping they choose us. We are local business people and taxpayers, we know the local roads and the local children — and they know us.”

The owner-operators and some of the supporters who have commented on various social networking sites and in letters to The Bee believe those factors may bring a lot of added value to parents and the district beyond the relatively close comparative cost of lower bidding companies which would come into the district cold, and would likely employ a majority of drivers from out of town or even out of state.

School district Business Manager Ron Bienkowski said that the bottom line cost is not the only consideration, and that any bid can be disqualified if it is found that any of a number of other bid requirements were not met in the fine details of the bus companies’ documents.

The school board is scheduled to be updated about the bid process when it meets July 12, and the owner-operators are hoping for a large showing of public support at that meeting. Ms Schierloh said that she and several others have been asked to attend a bid-related meeting with the business manager on July 11, but there was no specific information provided as to what that private meeting will cover.

At press time there were 132 signatures on a Internet petition that is preceded by the following statement: “The Owner/Operators have been providing transportation services to the children of Newtown for over 80 years. We, the residents, parents, taxpayers and voters of Newtown are in favor of keeping the owner/operator school transportation system. We respectfully request the Board of Education make every reasonable effort to reach an agreement with the owner/operators.”

Several comments on that site support the town retaining the owner/operators’ services including this comment by Brian Husvar, who said, “I am not even a Newtown resident anymore, but this issue is close to my heart. I rode O-O buses throughout my school career, and nothing beats the pride, care, and professionalism those drivers bring to the town. O-O’s are neighbors and friends. Future generations should not be deprived of this service.”

Another comment from Michael Kelly states, “I have lived in Newtown my entire life, I have always loved the bus system. I now have my own child starting Kindergarten in the fall, I want him to be on a bus driven by an owner/operator like I was. These bus drivers have more accountability!”

 The owner-operators are urging those wishing to lend their name to a the online petition to do so at: www.ipetitions.com/petition/newtownowneroperators.