Details Are Disturbing

To the Editor:

The more I hear about the bus contract being awarded to All-Star, the more disturbing the details become. The buzz around town is that the Board of Education wanted All-Star from the start and suggested Newtown just contract them without a bidding process. When the BOE found they couldn’t work it that way, the bidding process began and All-Star came in with a first bid and then was allowed to change their bid to the lowest figure when the BOE let them know what the other bids were. Is that fair? Is that legal?

Does the BOE know that All-Star low-balled their bid to New Milford and then went on strike to get higher wages and ended up with higher wages? So Newtown is not guaranteed lower costs with All-Star in the future.

Now there is the incident of a kindergartner “left” on the bus this week. The child was sleeping and never just left alone on the bus but the BOE will most likely make a big deal about this in their case about owner-operators. The stranger-operators are not going to be enthusiastically welcomed. This is not a change that Newtown needs. The owner-operators were not treated fairly and negotiations were not allowed in their favor. I think the motives of the BOE are highly questionable, at best.

JoAnne Barnhart

Brushy Hill Road, Newtown                                September 14, 2011