School District Seeking Proposals

From Transportation Companies

By Eliza Hallabeck

Commenting on a legal notice printed in last week’s issue of The Bee, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said February 4 that the school district is accepting proposals from local transportation companies.

The Newtown school district’s transportation system is comprised of both a transportation company and individual owner/operators, who own their own buses and contract individually with the school district. The transportation company, MTM Transportations, had a contract with the district that ended this year and is now open for bids. Dr Robinson said the company is responsible for the transportation of special education students, among other duties.

Most of the owner/operator contracts, according to Dr Robinson, are in their second year out of five. Therefore, most of the owner/operator contracts will not be opened for negotiations for a couple years.

In the school district’s proposed budget for the coming year, Dr Robinson, who presented the budget to the Board of Education on Tuesday, January 27, the proposed spending for the contract is fixed at the same level it was at for this past year. Dr Robinson said if bids come back over budget, other areas of the expected budget will have to be cut.