Only 2 School Bus Contract Bidders Accept Invite

Only two of the four remaining bidders on the school bus contract will show up for a meeting scheduled for Satuday morning at Newtown High School, officials announced Tuesday.

Only All-Star Transportation and the Newtown Owner Operators have agreed to attend a Board of Education meeting planned for 10 a.m., Aug. 20.

The other two bidders, DATTCO and First Student, have told the district they do not intend on attending, although they also have not given any indication they are withdrawing their bids, education board Chairman Bill Hart said during a regular meeting at the Municipal Center.

 “They have elected not to come,” Hart simply said of DATTCO and First Student, giving no reason for why the two weren't going to be at the Saturday meeting.

While they won't be at the meeting in person, DATTCO and First Student will presumably provide written answers to questions education board members may pose, Hart said.

The school district has put a five-year school bus contract out to bid and while , one, MTM, has since withdrawn its offer while two of the most costly options have all but been ruled out as possibilities, officials said.

That had left the four bidders, all of whom were invited to give a presentation and meet the public during a special meeting scheduled for Saturday. The only two expected at that meeting will be Newtown school bus owner-operators, who operate the existing system, and the lowest bidder, All-Star Transportation.

The board's decision to put the transportation cost out to bid and the process of evaluating the bids has drawn intense scrutiny, particularly among town residents, many of whom have spoken passionately in favor of keeping an owner-operator system that has been in existence in town for about 70 years.

Tuesday’s meeting was no exception with three out of five residents speaking in favor of preserving the owner operator system.

“There is no bigger fan of the town of Newtown on this planet than me,” Roy Krueger, a resident and lawyer said. “I know there is great consternation on the budget, and I understand where you folks are coming from but I’m really urging you to keep the owner operators.”

At the same time, one resident who attended the meeting urged the board to capitalize on any transportation savings it can find even if it didn’t include retaining the owner-operator system.

“A vocal minority can silence people and I would hope that a culture of fear isn’t settling in this town,” Lisa Dresner said. “Refocus your energy where they matter most.”

A fifth resident, Kinga Walsh, a frequent observer of education budget deliberations, said the school bus contract has stirred more interest in the public than other issues that have come before the board.

“It is perplexing to see the amount of attention this is getting,” she said.

Walsh said she was glad the education board was following its “fiduciary responsibility” to look at transportation costs, the third largest line item expense in the budget.

At the same time, Walsh said while she appreciates the owner-operators who are responsible for the transport of her children, the system has run into problems in the past, including one driver who got into an accident with a bus carrying children and is no longer working as an owner-operator, Walsh said.

“No system is perfect,” she said.

Correction: This article is about a Board of Education meeting that occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 16. An earlier version of this article at times referred to an incorrect day of the week.

Editor's note: For more coverage of what was discussed at the education board meeting, go to this article: Questions on Safety Record, Bid Timing Raised.