Politics & Government
Framingham Mayor Confuses Everyone On School Bus Problems
In a 9/5/23 City Council meeting the Mayor convincingly explained how our school bus drivers were getting $34/hour. It was pure fiction.
In his update in the recent October 17, 2023, City Council meeting, the Mayor corrected most of the extensive, misleading commentary on the school bus problem which he made in a City Council meeting on September 5, 2023.
The Mayor's original misinformation on September 5, was delivered in response to a request from Councilor Adam Steiner for an update on the school bus situation. A video clip of that may be viewed here:
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In that clip the Mayor asserted:
1. That a bus driver union agreement with NRT set the driver pay rate to $34/hour and that changed the prevailing wage to $34/hour.
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2. That prevailing wage rate then became the basis for Framingham’s contract negotiations with NRT.
3. The additional money we paid NRT when the contract was rebid went to driver wage increases.
He also reaffirmed to Councilor Adam Steiner in a follow up that:
4. The Framingham school bus driver pay rate was currently $34/hour.
He further asserted to Councilor Tracey Bryant that:
5. A written report that said that the pay rate the drivers were getting was less than the Framingham School Committee had wanted was FALSE. (That report was The Framingham Observer newsletter of August 17, 2023)
All of these 5 statements are incorrect. The correct information is:
1. A bus driver union agreement with NRT did not set the prevailing wage rate. That is done by the state Department of Labor Standards.
2. The prevailing wage rate which provided the city’s basis for Framingham’s contract negotiations with NRT was determined by the state Department of Labor Standards which issued a Prevailing Wage Rate determination for Framingham school bus drivers on July 21, 2023, and that document became an attachment to the city’s new bus contract with NRT, signed by all parties on August 1, 2023, 10 days later. The state determination of prevailing wage rates for school bus drivers was $31.00/hour for FY24, $31.70/hour for FY25 and $32.50 for FY26. The prevailing wage rate is the minimum a school bus driver can be paid. The city can pay more if it wishes. The state prevailing wage rate determination of 7/21/23 can be viewed here. It was obtained by a Public Records Request to the Department of Labor Standards which is documented here.
3. Under the new contract, Framingham paid NRT an increase of about $1.4 million in FY24, compared to the prior contract. The part of that due to increased driver pay is about $166,000 or about 12% of the contract increase. In the original contract NRT lost substantial profit margin because of high inflation for fuel, maintenance costs, etc., which was not anticipated when that contract was signed several years ago. NRT corrected for that in the rebid contract. So, most of the increase paid to NRT was to cover increased bus costs due to high inflation. The bus driver pay increase amount of $166,000 comes from a simple estimate, as follows. With the contract number of drivers set at 77, and using the fact that drivers work about 6 hours a day for 180 school days, and their pay increased from $29/hour to $31/hour, the amount of money for driver pay increases in FY24 is: 77 x 6 x 180 x $2 = $166,320.
4. The current Framingham school bus driver pay rate is $31/hour.
5. All of the information in The Framingham Observer newsletter of August 17, 2023, is correct.
The Mayor's correction may be viewed here:
and focuses on correcting the driver pay rate from $34/hour to $31/hour and noting that that is the prevailing wage. He continues to contend that there is no short-term relief and that NRT is the problem. More on this below.
It remains a mystery how the Mayor could have gotten the terms of the contract so wrong when we assumed he was heavily involved in the new contract negotiations, which produced the new contract on August 1, 2023, just a month before he misspoke on September 5, 2023.
This is an astounding state of affairs, as it is clear that for the last 6 weeks at least, the Mayor and the City Council had a completely wrong view of the basic facts governing the school bus chaos many families and students are experiencing.
It is impossible to solve the school bus problem if the Mayor and the City Council have the wrong fact picture. The Mayor's misinformation was only corrected after The Framingham Observer noticed the problem when reviewing video of the September 5, 2023, City Council meeting, and emailed the Mayor's office at 6:41pm on Monday, October 16, 2023, with the facts, which then triggered the Mayor's correction the following day.
Although the Framingham school bus driver pay rate has now been correctly confirmed as $31/hour, well below the rates paid to school bus drivers working for our bus company, NRT, in adjacent districts: Marlborough (> $34/hour), Westborough (> $32/hour), Hudson ($34/hour), the misinformation spread by the Mayor is not confined to just pay rates.
The current city administration narrative is that, after having the bus contract rebid over the summer, and with the city now paying NRT a lot more money, we still have busing chaos. The blame for the problem is being placed completely on NRT by the Mayor.
However, NRT offered a very attractive solution to the problem back on March 15, 2023, when it proposed to the city a very low-cost approach to address the bus driver shortage, by amending the bus contract in force at that time with a simple adjustment of the bus driver pay rate from $29/hour to $34/hour, at an additional cost of around $390,445 for each of FY24, FY25 and FY26. See:
This was an incredibly attractive proposal which would have made Framingham competitive with Marlborough and Westborough when NRT was hiring school bus drivers. It was a win-win, as it would have had an immediate and durable effect in hiring for the 2023 Fall school start, and that would have also increased the money earned by NRT from the contract. When there is a shortage of drivers, buses don’t run and NRT earns less money. NRT was willing to increase bus driver pay while keeping its overhead the same, with no adjustment for its much higher than planned costs for fuel, maintenance etc.
For inexplicable reasons, the city rejected that offer. Maybe the Mayor was as disengaged from that decision as he was from the more recent contract negotiations, or perhaps he got bad legal advice, or perhaps his procurement department was too inexperienced to make the deal work.
The major mistake the city made then and continues to make now, is underpaying school bus drivers.
It is likely the worst mistake of the Sisitsky administration.
There is also no relief in sight, as options like bringing bus transportation in-house cannot happen for at least 12-18 months due to a new bus shortage and would likely also require boosting bus driver pay anyway.
The only solution left is for the Mayor to own the mistakes made, stop shifting the blame onto NRT, and amend the newly inked contract to raise Framingham school bus driver pay to match the Marlborough rates for FY24, FY25 and FY26. That would cost the city an additional $250,000/year.
That is a small price to pay to put an end to the enormous educational damage which is being done to our students every school day.
