School Committee Might Decide On Bus Privatization Tonight

The Cranston School Committee might cast a deciding vote tonight on whether to privatize its bus fleet .

The committee is weighing its options between two bids submitted after a school district request for proposals for school bus transportation. One, from First Student, a national company and subsidiary of a global firm operating in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. including 18 school districts in Rhode Island, landed at $5.9 million.

The other is from the local bus union, Local 1322, which comes in at $7.2 million.

First Student’s bid includes a new fleet of buses equipped with video cameras and GPS systems and a pledge from company officials that every attempt would be made to rehire every driver and aide currently transporting Cranston students.

Local 1322’s bid could have been reduced through negotiations. Arthur Jordan, the union’s president, said the union would be prepared to give their presentation tonight and that significant concessions, in an attempt to match First Student's bid, have been made.

If the city picks the union, it will be responsible for replacing the bus fleet. School Committee Member Steven Bloom said at a work session last week that the School Committee had yet to receive any information about what replacing the fleet would cost.

A request for financial information related to the cost of bus operations during fiscal 2010 was rebuffed by school officials. Joe Balducci, the district’s finance director wrote in a response letter that the school’s attorney, Ronald Cascione, decided that information would not be released because it was the base for which negotiations with the union began.

A request for information relating to the cost of bus operations from fiscal years 2006 to 2009 would take longer than 10 days required for the city to respond to a public records request, Balducci said in an e-mail message.

 “The reason for this,” wrote Balducci in an e-mail, “Is that during the time frame noted in your request all employee-related fringe benefit expenditures (i.e. health, dental, pension, FICA, medicare, life insurance, etc.) were charged to centralized district-wide expenditure accounts.  These expenditure accounts not only included transportation personnel but also included every other school district employee (i.e. teachers, custodians, secretaries, etc.).”

Balducci said that the School Committee did not have this type of historical information in their hands, but noted that they would know how much Local 1322 has reduced or increased the cost of operating buses in Cranston because they were a part of negotiations.

As for First Student, a number of area school business managers praised their busing services.

“Providence Schools has contracted with First Student since 1997 for our student transportation needs, which include 156 buses transporting more than 10,000 students on a daily basis, plus specialized athletics and extracurricular transportation,” said Carleton Jones, chief operating officer for the Providence school district. “Our experience has been very positive – First Student management and staff have demonstrated a serious commitment to safety, and to continuously working with the Providence School District to improve their services to our families and our schools.”

Steve O’Hare, the transportation supervisor of Warwick Public Schools, said that First Student provides good service and that they have never had any major issues. Warwick uses First Student to operate their large buses.

“I’ve been here since 1999 and that’s the company we’ve always used,” said Lori Miller, the business manager for the Lincoln School Department, “We’ve had an excellent working relationship. When we call them with issues or parents call, they work it out quickly.”

Jason Martin, the liaison to First Student for Coventry Public Schools, said that they had been using First Student in Coventry for six years. He said the one problem he had with First Student was that their contract states all buses were to be 10 years old or newer and all their buses were 10 years old.

Martin said that they went out to bid this year and First Student won again. They agreed to provide all new buses and Martin said Coventry will be paying less next year than this year.

Union members have argued that the union has a commitment to the city and has a track record of delivering a safe environment for students. They have privatization.

First Union was involved in the 2007 blizzard in Providence fiasco when students were stranded in buses until 11:30 p.m. when an ill-timed dismissal and unexpected whiteout conditions happened simultaneously.

A June, 2010 investigation by Local 12 in Cincinnati claimed the company had a pattern of late buses, missed stops and unfulfilled mandates while trying to fulfill their $91 million contract for the city in southern Ohio. It also mentioned receiving used buses when they were promised new ones.

Eyewitness News 3 in New Haven, Ct. reported in January of 2009 that First Student was being investigated by the DMV for failing to maintain one of their buses.

Local 1322 came under fire in  a from Superintendent Peter Nero in which he said he wanted to let parents know about the “unusually high number of drivers out on long term medical leave.” He said that 13 of Cranston’s 80 drivers were out on leave. As a result he was forced to hire an outside contractor to fill in the vacant positions.

That contractor is First Student.