Granby School Board Approves New Bus Contract

Despite some concerns expressed by drivers, the Granby Board of Education Wednesday evening unanimously approved a new 5-year agreement to make First Student School Bus Transportation the school district’s new bus service provider.

The school district, according to school board member Matt Wutka, received four bids, with three companies - current provider M&J Bus, Autumn Transportation and Specialty Transportation - all submitting proposals within the same price range.

First Student, however, submitted a significantly lower bid that will cost the district about $100,000 less per year - or $500,000 over the life of the agreement - on regular bus runs than the other companies.

School district Business Manager Harry Traver said that First Student is the bus service provider for a number of towns in the state, including Suffield.

“We talked to Suffield and they are very happy,” Traver said.

School board Chairman Cal Heminway noted that First Student is the provider for CREC to bus Choice students from Hartford and that there were substantial problems at the beginning of that relationship.

“That’s not going to happen to us, is it?” school board member Ed Ohannessian asked.

Traver said that there were problems during the first three weeks when First Student started the CREC contract, but that the company quickly fixed the issues.

“Kids were missed or not picked up,” Traver said. “It did get straightened out in three weeks. The rate of improvement was significant.”

But there was still concern from some bus drivers over whether the change in companies really meant that the town will save money, or if here hidden charges in the new agreement.

“My worry as a taxpayer and a voter is whether that $100,000 will show up at the end of the year or is it siphoned off,” said Granby resident and school bus driver Oscar Lacafta. “Will this cost you extra dollars elsewhere? … Are we going to realize $100,000 each year … or is something missing there.”

But Traver and Ohannessian said that all four companies bid on the same agreement and that there were no hidden fees for First Student to charge.

First Student Director of Business Development Clifton Johnson agreed, noting that, without getting into the specifications of how his company goes through the bidding process, that its fee was pretty well set based on the specifications set forth by Traver.

In addition, Traver said that the town would maintain control over the routing and that it is anticipated that the current school bus drivers would be rehired by First Student.

“We anticipate that the drivers will stay with us,” Traver said.

Granby resident Laura Fetridge said that she had seen some problems around the country, but outside of Connecticut, with First Student maintaining and servicing its buses and wanted to know what steps would be taken to ensure that those issues would not make their way into Granby.

Johnson said that those issues had been ironed out and that the company’s buses were subject to state inspection every year.