School Board Begins Transportation Bid Review

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Board of Education plans to meet with the four lowest bidders on the transportation contract now out to bid before determining which will be awarded the contract.

The field has narrowed since the bidders were first announced, as school district Business Director Ron Bienkowski pointed out at a special meeting of the board, July 26. The contract that is due to expire in July 2012 is currently awarded to Newtown’s traditional transportation providers, owner-operators who work under individual pacts. The contract first went out to bid on June 23.

Mr Bienkowski said the school board has 60 days from the opening date on the bid to decide, but during the meeting Board of Education Chair William Hart directed Mr Bienkowski to seek out an extension on the contract to allow time for the school board to interview the four lowest bidders publicly.

“We will put together a schedule and poll everybody for dates,” said Mr Hart.

Mr Hart, who presented the idea of interviewing the four bidders during a public meeting, said the session, once scheduled, will include 15-minute presentations by each bidder and 15 minutes for questioning each bidder. Mr Hart also said he would not expect a decision to be made until after the public meeting for interviews.

The four low bidders on the contract, as listed in a presentation by Mr Bienkowski for the board, 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 is listed as $10,217,722, and the five-year contract total for the owner-operators is $11,728,895.

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. Mr Bienkowski also said the field was narrowed to look only at the four lowest bidders, because the other two bids were too high.

During the meeting Mr Bienkowski presented the school board with information compiled by a Bid Review Committee comprising himself, school board member Keith Alexander, Education Connection Transportation Manager Bert Hughes, Newtown’s Director of Pupil Personnel Services Michael Regan, and Newtown’s Director of Finance Robert Tait. Mr Bienkowski said Mr Hughes was brought in for third-party insight on the bid, and listed his previous transportation work with one of the bidders, First Student, and his current position with Education Connection as qualifications to review the transportation contract.

The owner-operator system began in 1934 when the Board of Education first opened bids for transporting Newtown’s students, according to Town Historian Dan Cruson’s Educating Newtown’s Children: A History of Its Schools. The original bid winners were Albert Rasmussen, Jacob Nezvesky, Jesse C. Lewis, and Arthur Page. All were hired at rates between $8 and $10 per day.

By contrast, the daily rates listed by the Bid Review Committee for the first year of the five-year transportation contract now out to bid were $310 for All-Star Transportation drivers, $334 for First Student drivers, $347 for DATTCO drivers, and $359 for owner-operators.

Mr Bienkowski said the transportation contract allows the school district the opportunity to find savings without cutting services.

The Bid Review Committee also compiled annual inspection reports on each company and the individual owner-operators through information listed on the Hartford Courant’s website provided by the State Department of Motor Vehicles. Mr Hughes also pointed out the different charts the committee created to show the ranging rates and costs associated with each bidder. All-Star Transportation, he pointed out, consistently came through as the lowest bidder on the contract in each chart.

A survey of 19 questions was also completed by each of the Bid Review Committee members, and the scored answers were graphed anonymously for the school board to evaluate. All-Star Transportation scored the highest with each survey respondent.

Mr Hart questioned how a bus company would handle a reduction in bus routes, as a result of a projected 16 percent reduction in school enrollment over the next five years, as compared to how the owner-operators contract would deal with the reduction.

A company, Mr Bienkowski said, would be responsible for overseeing the reduction, and some specifically require a limit to the reduction of routes per year. He also said the school district would be responsible for buying out an owner-operator route if it were eliminated.

Labor Complaint

School board attorney Floyd Dugas also spoke during the meeting to report on the progress of a complaint filed on behalf of the owner-operators with the State Board of Labor Relations alleging the district has violated the Municipal Employees Labor Relations Act (MELRA). Mr Dugas said the school board should not expect results from the complaint to be completed before the end of the year.

The complaint, issued by attorney Henry F. Murray, alleges a violation of Section 7-470 (4) of MELRA in that the board has failed to bargain with the owner-operators through their elected contract committee with respect to its decision to subcontract school bus driving responsibilities.

Mr Dugas explained that the labor complaint hinges on three points: the owner-operators are employees and not contracted individuals, the committee that has met with the Board of Education over the years is a labor union, and it was unfair for the board to seek outside services before bargaining with the owner-operators.

Mr Dugas also said the complaint has raised a number of questions, including whether individual owner-operators can contract with the school board without having the situation be considered “price fixing.”

“The further we go into this process, it is like pulling a thread,” said Mr Dugas.

After being asked by School Board Secretary Andrew Buzzi whether the complaint throws the bidding process out, Mr Dugas said that was a matter better discussed between the attorney and his client, the school board.

Mr Hart reminded the board that town and school district policies stipulate any contract over $30,000 must go out to bid.

Public Participation

All but one speaker in the public participation portion of the meeting spoke in favor of the owner-operator system during the meeting.

“I don’t understand the priority over why we are having this tussle,” said resident Charles Hepp.

After acknowledging the school board had a tough decision before it, Mr Hepp said he would prefer money be spent in the classroom and not out of the classroom.

Resident Karen Visca said the owner-operators do an excellent job in town, and asked the school board to listen to the parents in the district.

Resident and a former teacher Dan Shea said students are relatively safe while in the classroom, but buses are large and potentially dangerous. He told the school board to seize the opportunity to provide comfort in the form of having community members own and operate the district’s buses.

“You should not put a dollar sign on comfort and peace of mind,” said Mr Shea.

Owner-operator Beth Koschel also spoke during the meeting. Being an owner-operator, she said, is part of her identity. It is also a legacy she received from her father.

“The owner-operators are dedicated to Newtown,” said Ms Koschel. “We have invested interest in the town and the school district. We live and work in town, own our businesses here, volunteer time to our charities and organizations. We’re longtime residents, having attended Newtown schools as did and do our children.”

As residents, Ms Koschel said, owner-operators are able to better manage the roads. Salaries are also put back into the area, and most, Ms Koschel continued, of the owner-operators have more than ten years of experience driving as owner-operators.

“I know that the children I drive will not have better than I give them,” Ms Koschel said. “I care about them, and take care of these children like they are my own. I love them, and I love my job. I’m asking you to continue to give the children of Newtown the best that they can have, and I believe in my heart this is our current owner-operator system.”

Full audio of the meeting is available at www.newtownbee.com along with a PDF version of the information presented by Mr Bienkowski of the Bid Review Committee’s analysis for the school board.