Saving Money? La Grange Area Schools May Join Forces On Buses

LA GRANGE, IL – Last year, frustrated Lyons Township High School officials said the school's bus contractor was the "only game in town."

Now, they are looking to increase their leverage with the company, Cincinnati-based First Student.

In recent years, the school has complained about the lateness of buses. The school has not gone out to bid for the bus contract in nearly two decades, officials said last year.

Talk about changing the bus service last fall died down.

At Monday's school board meeting, Brian Stachacz, the director of business services, said he believed the school shares First Student buses with about a dozen area districts. He said he planned to contact his counterparts at the other districts and ask them to consider joining forces in seeking bus bids.

"We're going to look at whether the advantage is to bid it together, which we think it probably is, or bid it separately," Stachacz said.

He said he saw the advantage to the high school.

"We're one of the districts that start earlier in the day and so our buses can go out and run our students and then run out ... and be shared with other districts," Stachacz said. "So we're cutting down on some of the cost for those daily routes when those buses are shared. When they're not shared, you're paying the full route as a district by yourself."