BOE Prepares For Special Saturday Meeting On Bus Contract

By Eliza Hallabeck

Before the Board of Education meets this Saturday, August 20, to interview bidders for the transportation contract now before the board for review, it discussed the contract during its regular meeting on Tuesday, August 16.

The contract, which is due to expire in July 2012, is currently awarded to Newtown’s traditional transportation providers, owner-operators who work under individual pacts.

The four low bidders on the contract, as listed in a presentation by school district Business Director Ron Bienkowski for the board at a previous meeting, are, from lowest to highest, All-Star Transportation, First Student, DATTCO, and Newtown’s owner-operators.

The five-year contract total for All-Star Transportation was listed as $10,217,722, and the five-year contract total for the owner-operators is $11,728,895.

Also at the board’s last meeting, Mr Hart presented the idea of holding a special meeting to interview each of the four contract contenders, but, as Mr Hart said on Tuesday, only All-Star Transportation and the owner-operators have said representatives will be at the meeting this Saturday.

“They are going to make presentations to us, and answer our questions,” said Mr Hart.

While First Student and DATTCO have not withdrawn their bids, Mr Hart said, both companies have elected not to attend the meeting.

Saturday’s meeting will begin at 10 am, with All-Star Transportation and the owner-operators potentially arriving earlier with vehicles, according to Mr Hart. The meeting will be held in Newtown High School’s cafetorium, located in the school’s newest addition.

The original bidders on the contract included Newtown based MTM Transportation, which currently oversees special education transportation and more in town, but MTM Transportation dropped out of the process, despite being the lowest bidder. MTM’s current contract is not up for bid.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Mr Hart explained transportation in Newtown is overseen by the owner-operators, MTM Transportation, and McCutchan Transportation, which oversees the transportation needs associated with athletics in town.

Transportation is the third largest line item in the district’s budget, Mr Hart said, representing roughly $4.5 million in the current budget. The regular bus routes are overseen by 33 owner-operator contracts, with some owner-operators owning multiple buses. The regular bus routes are estimated at roughly $2.4 million, special needs routes are estimated to cost $1.8 million, and the cost of transporting athletic groups is roughly $200,000 for the current year, as presented by Mr Hart.

When comparing Newtown’s cost per student as compared to other school districts in its District Reference Group (DRG), a state defined group of like-districts, Mr Hart said Newtown’s transportation cost per student is roughly 40 percent higher than the DRG average. He also said the district’s cost for administrator salaries, student support services, and teacher salaries are below the DRG average by different percentages. The teacher salaries, Mr Hart said, are about 4.9 percent below the DRG average.

Mr Hart also discussed Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) violation records with his board during the meeting. Each bus is inspected yearly, according to Mr Hart, and the violations are marked after the inspection. A bus is marked as “Out of Service” if found with a violation, and, he explained, one bus can have multiple violations.

Using data collected from the DMV online database and a collection of individual reports for nearly all of Newtown’s owner-operators, some were not available from the state, Mr Hart presented the percentage of buses marked as “Out of Service” for the school years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

The latest results showed All-Star Transportation with 0.19 percent of buses marked as “Out of Service,” First Student was reported during the meeting to have 24.37 percent of buses, DATTCO had 12.56 percent, and the owner-operators had 32.14 percent of the buses meet “Out of Service” qualifications.

“When they find a fault,” said Mr Hart, “they call it a violation. That is their term.”

After being ranked as “Out of Service” a bus can be corrected to once again carry passengers.

Mr Hart said his reasoning for inspecting the DMV reports centered on it being another piece of data to measure how well buses are maintained by the various contract bidders.

Board of Education Secretary Andrew Buzzi pointed out each of the four lowest bidders had buses marked as “Out of Service,” and said it would be a good idea to ask the two expected bidders during the special meeting on Saturday how a bus could fail a scheduled inspection.

After a question from school board Vice Chair Debbie Leidlein, Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said no one in the central office is inspecting the “Out of Service” rates on a yearly basis.

“That is the responsibility of the company,” said Dr Robinson.

 In response to a statement during public participation, Mr Buzzi, who is also the Board of Education’s Policy Subcommittee chair, said renegotiating with any or all of the bidders is not possible.

“Once that bid period is done, we are done,” said Mr Buzzi. “There is no more negotiation.”

That practice, Mr Buzzi continued, is in place to treat each bidder equally.

Public Participation

Two people speaking in the public comment portion of the meeting said the owner-operators add to Newtown.

“We pay a premium for the privilege of living in Newtown,” said resident David Callen. “Our owner-operator caregivers are part of what differentiates this community. They provide a very unique service that makes Newtown special.”

Resident Roy Krueger asked the school board to maintain the quality of life that makes Newtown great.

“I think that the owner-operator system is part of what gives our children, and I can speak from personal experience, a very unique growing up in this town,” Mr Krueger said. “Hopefully, one day, I’m going to have kids in this system, and they are going to be transported to the schools with the owner-operators.”

Resident Lisa Dresner asked why hours are being spent arguing over a bus contract rather than concentrating on what can be done to strengthen education in Newtown.

“I would urge everyone to keep in mind the bigger picture, and the more important picture, of quality education for our students. And, in so doing, be mindful of your fiscal responsibility and refocus your energy where it matters most,” said Ms Dresner.

While resident Kinga Walsh said she has respect and appreciation for owner-operators, no system in perfect.

“My hope is that the final decision is based on what is educationally in the best interest for Newtown, and education has many aspects,” said Ms Walsh.

The Board of Education’s special meeting Saturday, August 20, will be held in Newtown High School’s cafetorium starting at 10 am.