Framingham Mayor Explains 4 Ways to Not Solve the School Bus Problem

After the Mayor’s update in the City Council meeting on November 21, 2023, Councilor Adam Steiner asked for an update on the late school bus situation, noting that it is still a ‘real problem’. The Mayor gave a detailed response, which illustrated very clearly how in his view there is no near-term solution and how he continues to pour cold water on the most obvious solution, which is to increase school bus driver pay to at least $34/hour.

In the following video clip, he specifically leads the City Council and meeting viewers to believe that increasing school bus driver pay to $34/hour won’t work. He notes that Marlborough still has school bus problems even though their driver pay is set to $34/hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVvoHXzVrjc

What the Mayor does not say is that Framingham’s school bus problem is much worse than Marlborough’s. Framingham pays its school bus drivers $31/hour and is missing 20 drivers out of 77. Marlborough pays its school bus drivers $34/hour and is missing 4 drivers out of 33.

That is a huge difference.

If Framingham raised its rate to $34/hour and things worked out the same as in Marlborough, Framingham would be missing 9-10 drivers, which is whole lot better than 20. Certainly, this would be well worth trying, even going to $36/hour might be worth it to get even more progress on the problem. NRT has drivers in its training pipeline, but what driver is going to come to Framingham at $31/hour, when they can go to Marlborough (or even Hudson) for $34/hour?

It seems clear that increasing Framingham school bus driver pay to $34/hour would be a real step towards a solution. Yet the Mayor fudges the facts.

This is simply the latest misinformation which is designed to hide a series of school busing mistakes made by the Mayor’s administration in the last year.

A prior article laid out the history of this:

https://framinghamobserver.substack.com/p/city-of-framingham-contract-fumbles

but some things are worth repeating and clarifying here.

The most important central fact is that school bus transportation contracts are not set in stone. They can be amended to increase school bus driver pay rates. As NRT made clear to the Framingham School Committee back on March 15, 2023, their contract with the City of Framingham could be simply amended to increase school bus driver pay from $29/hour to $34/hour at a cost of about $400,000/year. State law places restrictions on how much a contract cost can be increased without requiring a rebid and, as NRT noted, the contract increase would have been far below that threshold. NRT has dozens of bus transportation contracts with school districts and its lawyers are experts in this area of law, as they have to be.

This was a very appealing offer, as just the driver pay would increase, and NRT would hold the rest of the contract at the same cost level. Remember since that original contract was bid and signed two years ago, rising inflation boosted the cost of bus fuel and maintenance costs substantially, so NRT was holding that part level. It was a real bargain. It would have also given NRT plenty of time, in the 6 months leading up to the start of school in September 2023, to hire more drivers at the much more attractive rate.

But, in an enormous blunder the Mayor’s administration did not take NRT up on this offer, and instead, in the summer, went out to rebid the contract and ended up paying a contract increase of $1.4 million/year with school bus driver pay increased to just $31/hour.

Further, the city entirely ignored the School Committee priority to get driver pay to $34/hour and even beat down an NRT proposal for $32.42/hour down to $31/hour.

The $1.4 million increase comes from the fact that, with the entire contract completely rebid, NRT boosted its fuel and maintenance costs to 2023 levels rather than the low inflation estimates they had used in their original contract executed in 2021. NRT must have been completely astounded at Framingham’s refusal to simply adjust the original contract at low cost, and then decide to go for a full contract rebid at much higher cost.

To recap.

For just $400,000/year, school bus driver pay could have been increased to $34/hour with a contract amendment.

But the Mayor chose the full contract rebid option, where $1,400,000/year was paid to increase school bus driver pay by $31/hour. He managed to pay a ton more money and not solve the problem.

There is just one word for this.

Crazy.

Since this giant mistake, misinformation has amplified, with the Mayor claiming on September that in the rebid contract bus driver pay was $34/hour, instead of the actual $31/hour, and now he is claiming that $34/hour won’t make a difference anyway.

I recommend watching the full video clip of the Mayor’s response to Adam Steiner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_81jmVPeBWI

where he explains the 4 ways that he is trying to solve the problem, all of which won’t get our kids to school on time, as my comments in italics reflect:

1. Bring school bus transportation in house – complicated and years away, if ever possible.
2. Review the NRT contract with the City Solicitor, exploring options to foreclose on the performance bond or sue NRT for breach of contract – these options may not be successful, and certainly won’t increase the number of school bus drivers.
3. Use MWRTA buses to help students get to school – tried and failed.
4. Set up parent carpools to get students to school – logistical and liability nightmare, with little possible impact.

Plus, of course, the video clip includes his disparagement of the $34/hour bus driver pay increase solution.

It is hard to see how the Mayor could possibly be successful in a bid for a second term as Mayor with this millstone around his neck. Our students deserve a whole lot better, as the quality of their education has taken a deep dive from this gigantic city failure to get them to class on time. Their parents will remember this in 2025.