One Question About Watertown School Buses Answered, Others Remain

The cost of running school buses in Watertown will remain the same next year, but a new school bus company will be delivering students to school in the fall.

The School Committee has been waiting to see how much the new bus contract would be before deciding on changes to who can ride the bus and if they must pay a fee.

The new, one-year bus contact was awarded to Eastern Bus Co. earlier this month, Superintendent Ann Koufman told the School Committee last week. Their bid of $269 per day per bus was lower than Local Motion, which has been the district’s bus company for a number of years.

Local Motion charged $278 per bus per day this school year, and their bid was $282 for next year.

School Committee Chairman Anthony Paolillo welcomed the terms of the new contract.

“That is good news that it didn’t go up,” he said. “I was afraid it would go up and we would need to find more savings.”

The matter of school bus fees and which students can ride the bus will go back to the School Committee’s Budget & Finance Subcommittee, Paolillo said. The next meeting is scheduled for July 12 at 7 p.m.

The subcommittee met two weeks ago, but did not make a decision because they did not know how much it would cost to run buses in the new contract.

The School Committee has searched for ways to cut $50,000 from the cost of running school buses. They have looked at asking people to pay more, or at reducing the number of buses by transporting only those required by the state – students living 2 miles or more from school.

At the most recent subcommittee meeting parents from Hosmer School, which has about 173 students who ride the bus, said they would like to know soon if they will lose bus service.

If the 2-miles from school requirement is used, none of the Hostmer students would qualify. Parents said they worry about students crossing busy roads like Arsenal Street, North Beacon Street and Mt. Auburn Street, not to mention walking through Watertown Square.

Paolillo told parents at the subcommittee meeting that they would know whether they would have bus service and what the fees will be before the start of school in September.