Framingham Must Boost School Bus Driver Pay to Avoid a Fall Disaster

Everyone knows that Framingham Public Schools has a chronic late school bus problem. NRT, the school bus company, has a contract with Framingham Public Schools to provide 77 buses to transport students to and from the elementary schools, the middle schools, and the high school, but since the start of the school year, they have been only able to provide about 55 buses each school day.

55 buses are sufficient for the high school and middle schools, but they are not nearly enough for the elementary schools. Every elementary school is experiencing late school bus arrivals in the morning. Brophy Elementary School has the worst record, with 46% of its morning bus arrivals late, but other schools are also significantly affected: Barbieri (24%), Stapleton (20%), King (15%), Harmony Grove (13%). Just one late school bus, with a capacity of 70 students, can disrupt almost every class in its destination elementary school, and these kids can miss out on breakfast as well. Further, families end up having problems, as parents may then be constantly late for work. These morning buses can be late by up to 20-40 minutes. Elementary school bus departures are even later in the afternoon, with typically 60% or more of buses departing late from all elementary schools.

Complete details can be found in the report provided the School Committee at its March 29th meeting:

https://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/cms/lib/MA01907569/Centricity//Domain/81/2023%20Packets/03.29.23/FPS%20Transportation%20Update%203.29.23.pdf

This is obviously bad, but it could easily get much worse in the Fall when the new school year starts. At the last School Committee meeting, on March 29th, Adam Freudberg noted the following:

1. NRT is removing its non-compete clause for its bus drivers in the Fall. At present Framingham school bus drivers cannot switch to another NRT served district to get better pay. But that ends in the Fall.
2. Quoting from the city solicitor: “NRT has now indicated to the city that it may not be able to fulfil its contractual obligations for the next school year.”

These are major red flags for the school district!

The fundamental problem here is school bus driver pay.

Framingham’s school bus driver pay rate is $29/hour. NRT also serves Westborough, where the pay rate is $32/hour and Marlborough, where the pay rate was raised in January to $34/hour. In Westborough, NRT has been able to supply 24 out of a contracted 25 school buses. Compare that to our 55 out of 77.

It is well known that post-pandemic there has been a shortage of school bus drivers, who were basically abandoned across the state, when schools went remote during the pandemic. No wonder, they left the profession in droves. The only way to get them back is with higher pay. So, this is not an NRT bad management problem. It is a market driven pay problem.

I am doubly convinced of this as, when I served for 4 years as chair of the School Committee Finance & Operations subcommittee, I acquired substantial experience with both Durham, the prior vendor, and NRT. NRT operates Van Pool, our special needs van transportation service, which they took over from Accept, a few years ago, saving us $500,000/year and running a much more effective transportation operation. The market is easier for van drivers and NRT has not had a problem with van service.

NRT has already supplied in detail the costs for raising school bus driver pay by $3/hour or $5/hour in a memo to the School Committee, discussed at its March 15th meeting:

https://www.framingham.k12.ma.us/cms/lib/MA01907569/Centricity//Domain/81/2023%20Packets/03.15.23/IX.%20%20A.%20%20NRT%20Framingham%20CDL%20Rate%20Increase%20Analysis%20.pdf

In this memo, NRT also explained clearly that their contract with Framingham Public Schools, and state regulations, would allow these pay raises. Raising school bus driver hourly pay to $34 would cost the city $390,445 for FY24, the next school year. To prevent school bus drivers fleeing our school district in the Fall, for better pay elsewhere, we must at least make that contract adjustment and add $390,445 to the FPS FY24 budget to fund it.

The Mayor reduced the city’s funding of the school district by $10 million/year in the FY23 and FY24 budgets, so he has plenty of education money to fix the late school bus problem. If the pay raises were made effective now, rather than in the Fall, to attract more bus drivers for the remainder of the school year, which still has 3 months to run, the cost would be an additional $187,500.

If we don’t do this the entire school bus transportation system could collapse in the Fall. Imagine if, when school starts up again in September, we had only 40 drivers, because many left for better pay in other school districts. It would be utter chaos.

NRT is putting together its legal defense in case Framingham allows that to happen. That’s what its notice to the city solicitor means.

In my view, we are in a crisis which requires emergency action by the School Committee, the FPS administration, the Mayor, and the City Council.

But that might not happen.

This is because the city has a habit of failing to invest money to solve staff shortage problems. Witness its comprehensive inaction on boosting FPS classroom aide compensation to solve a chronic shortage there.

Last year at around this time, FPS had 140 vacancies in classroom aide positions for special needs students and English language leaner students, whose first language is not English. Those aides belong to the Unit T collective bargaining unit, which negotiates separately from regular classroom teachers who belong to Unit A. A new Unit T contract was being negotiated, and there was a real opportunity for the city to boost aide pay to help solve the shortage. But the city forced the School Committee to align with its rigid 2% inflation rate increase policy for all collective bargaining units. So, the shortage of classroom aides persists and, though not as obvious as late school buses, causes educational damage every day to some of our most disadvantaged students.

In the past the School Committee has boosted pay to solve staffing shortages, when not constrained by the city’s heavy financial hand. Witness the 40% pay boost that the School Committee gave contracted substitute teachers a few years ago to make FPS competitive with surrounding districts, and solve a shortage there.

My point here is that it is much more the city blocking school bus driver pay increases, than the School Committee.

So, the city must shift gears, take the initiative, and invest in pay increases for school bus drivers.

The city must not fail our children. Their educational future is at stake.