{"id":2261,"date":"2011-03-15T11:54:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T15:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2261"},"modified":"2011-03-15T11:54:01","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T15:54:01","slug":"consultant-unionville-should-put-bus-service-out-for-private-bids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2261","title":{"rendered":"Consultant: Unionville should put bus service out for private bids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report suggests various options for cost savings, ranging from improved efficiency to total outsourcing of busing<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District bus depot in East Marlborough.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\nEAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The consultant hired to look at the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District school bus operation is recommending that the Board of Education immediately put bus services out to bid for outsourcing for the 2011-12 school year in order to determine whether the district can save money, suggesting that based on nearby schools, \u201cthe potential for savings may be significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Monday\u2019s Board of Education work session was any indication, the decision of whether to put the district\u2019s bus services out to bid \u2014 and when \u2014 may prove highly contentious. More than two dozen bus drivers attended Monday night\u2019s board work session meeting which also included some testy exchanges between board members.<\/p>\n

Superintendent of Schools Sharon Parker and members of administration guided the board through an executive summary of the 57-page report generated by Transportation Advisory Services (TAS) of Walworth, NY, which offered numerous options from increasing efficiencies in the current district-run operation to full-blown outsourcing of all district transportation.<\/p>\n

While there were discussions on varied topics from bus routing software to the general layout of the transportation building on Doe Run Road, there was clear friction between board director Paul Price and other members of the board. Price, who has championed outsourcing various school functions in order to save money, clashed with fellow director Jeff Hellrung and to a lesser extent with board president Timotha Trigg during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Price, who has decided not to run for re-election in 2011, issued a statement to those attending the meeting and directed people to a video he created and posted on You Tube, noting that the Unionville district pays more for busing than any other school district in the county than Octorara, based on a daily per-bus cost. The full text of Price\u2019s statement appears here today as a Letter To The Editor. Following the meeting, Price suggested that Parker and the administration glossed over the outsourcing option and expressed frustration that the board will not get an opportunity to vote at its regular board meeting next week on whether to issue a Request For Proposal (RPF) to local bus companies.<\/p>\n

Hellrung cautioned those in attendance at the meeting that \u201cas a school board we have nine separately elected people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board speaks only when we have five votes,\u201d he said. \u201cOne member might be speaking rashly, foolishly, but that doesn\u2019t represent the view of the board as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price said he took great \u201cumbrage\u201d at Hellrung\u2019s comments, saying they were clearly directed at him. Later, Trigg and Price were at odds over the numbers cited in the report, Trigg suggesting that she would like to see more data, and Price suggesting that the numbers in the report told the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking for your analysis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Story continues on next page<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Continued from previous page<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, the fiscal issues with the bus system seem to center, according to the report, on the pay and benefits of employees that earn full-time benefits without working full-time hours. The current threshold for such benefits, including pensions, is 25 hours a week for 10 months a year, a cost that a private bus company would not have to pay. One complication is that some of the transportation department employees also work in food service \u2014 and outsourcing busing could lead to additional costs in food service. The report suggested a number of options for the district, including outsourcing just the out-of-district busing, which could be combined by neighboring districts to offer a cost savings.<\/p>\n

For their part, the bus drivers appeared willing to work with the district to reduce employee costs, one driver, John Austin, even saying he wished they could opt out of their Public School Employees Retirement System pension plan, if it meant keeping the bus operation in-house.<\/p>\n

Another driver, Bob Cover, asked whether the district had spoken with neighboring districts about their experiences and whether they would outsourcing busing if they had it to do over again.<\/p>\n

Hellrung said he appreciated the sentiment, but suggested that health insurance costs were a bigger part of the benefit expense picture \u2014 and an area that drivers might be able to work with the district.<\/p>\n

Cover also asked whether the outsourcing decision would be taken strictly on a fiscal basis. Finance chair Keith Knauss said definitively \u201cno,\u201d meaning that the non-financial benefits of keeping busing in-house would be factored into the decision. Cover also asked that the board take the decision in a deliberate manner, noting that once made \u201cit\u2019s almost mission impossible to get back to where you were\u201d because of the large cost of reconstituting a new bus fleet.<\/p>\n

Board member Eileen Bushelow said she hoped that the employees of the transportation department would be given the opportunity to, in effect, bid for the service by working with the district to cut overall costs to keep them in line what could be provided by a private company. Drivers pointed out that they are paying more of their personal insurance and had taken a wage freeze.<\/p>\n

Bushelow also suggested that the district explain the process to parents, give them a sense of what to expect if outsourcing is the final result of process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s premature,\u201d Price said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t even put it out to bid, yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents were invited to comment on the district\u2019s Web site, however, where the entire report can also be read.<\/p>\n

Knauss said he thought it was important to outline the process for district transportation employees, so they know what to expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough situation all around,\u201d Trigg said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to look at you guys. I\u2019ve had a kid on your buses since 1992 and still do. But you can see what a tough budget situation we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report suggests various options for cost savings, ranging from improved efficiency to total outsourcing of busing By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The consultant hired to look at the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District school bus operation is recommending that the Board of Education immediately put bus services out to bid for outsourcing for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}