{"id":2364,"date":"2011-03-22T11:26:18","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T15:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2364"},"modified":"2011-03-22T11:26:18","modified_gmt":"2011-03-22T15:26:18","slug":"unionville-to-get-bids-on-outsourcing-busing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2364","title":{"rendered":"Unionville to get bids on outsourcing busing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Board of Education members say no decision has been made, bids needed to get detailed financial information<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>POCOPSON \u2014 Stressing that the final decision had not been made, most members of the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education expressed support for putting the district\u2019s school bus services out to bid for outsourcing in the next couple of weeks, as parents, teachers and district bus drivers pleaded for the board to consider the special role drivers play in the district.<\/p>\n

The topic dominated a packed Board of Education meeting at Pocopson Elementary School, Monday night. The issue is reaching a boiling point in the district, as teachers wore buttons to school Monday expressing their support of the bus drivers \u2014 putting the potential loss of bus drivers on students\u2019 radar.<\/p>\n

Unionville Superintendent of Schools Sharon Parker said after last week\u2019s board work session it became increasingly evident that the rough numbers from a report generated by Transportation Advisory Services weren\u2019t going to be enough to make an informed decision on whether to outsource the district\u2019s school bus fleet and operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to get these figures is to develop these bid specifications,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThese bids do not have to be accepted and acted upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board members said they were sympathetic to calls from parents, teachers and transportation department employees to keep the busing operation in-house, but that they had a responsibility to the greater community to explore all options in the current economic environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure I would have been one of the people standing up in support of the bus drivers, if I weren\u2019t up here,\u201d board member Holly Mazone said. \u201cThere are a lot of people up here who have no idea what you go through,\u201d she told the drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision has not been made,\u201d she said, echoing the statements of virtually all of her colleagues. \u201cI didn\u2019t support doing the bus study, but I see the merits of the study; we can\u2019t make all the decisions without all of the information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker said that the administration would work on two tracks: one, looking at the cost-savings and impact of outsourcing the bus fleet; a second track will look at improving the efficiency of the existing operation. She stressed that the final decision will not be made solely on the basis of cost, but rather that the intangible benefits of the current set up will be heavily weighed.<\/p>\n

She also praised the workers of the transportation department, both for how calmly they\u2019ve handled the looming spectre of their jobs being outsourced and their continued dedication to the district and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard loud and clear that you are committed to the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District,\u201d she told the dozens of drivers, mechanics and transportation employees in the audience.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem the district and the school board has in making a decision, Parker said, in the unique nature of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. Aside from being the biggest school district in terms of land area in Chester County, it also has the largest number of students being bused to private schools. Pennsylvania state law requires local public school districts to pay for transportation of private and parochial students to their respective schools.<\/p>\n

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

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Story continues from previous page<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

While those bids are expected until next month, with bids expected to be opened on April 22, the subject seems to have touched off a great of passionate debate, as evidenced by the comments during the meeting, by the public, and in some continued verbal sniping among members of the board. Krapf\u2019s, the West Chester-based company that handles many local school districts, came under special attack for alleged safety issues and lax standards of hiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most assinine, stupid accounting trick I\u2019ve ever heard of,\u201d said parent Joe Claffy of Pocopson, suggesting that bus company owners have grown rich while cutting corners. \u201cAll that money is going to go into Krapf\u2019s pockets and these people who will be driving these buses will be dirtballs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Various drivers spoke of their encounters, either as prospective employees or employees of some of the local private bus companies, painting a dire picture in terms of safety, in particular. Jim Turner, a driver who lives in Birmingham, talked about interviewing with a contractor and a Delaware County public school prior to interviewing for a job with Unionville last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked \u2018do you have a CDL (Commercial Drivers License)? How many hours can you work?\u2019 Not one word about safety,\u201d Turner said. \u201cWhen I spoke with Gail Wolfel (the district\u2019s Supervisor of Transportation), the first thing she asked me was \u2018what did I think about safety?\u2019 In none of the other interviews did the individuals say anything about safety. After I spoke with her, I spoke with a couple of bus drivers there. And they talked about the safety of \u2018our\u2019 kids. When I left, I was impressed. And even though the other opportunities paid more on a dollar basis, I knew this is where I wanted to be. These drivers love these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deborah Carr, a long-time bus driver for the district, spoke about her time driving for Krapf\u2019s before she joined the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came from Krapf\u2019s, I know what\u2019s there,\u201d she said. \u201cAt Krapf\u2019s everything is covered up. If there\u2019s an accident, you don\u2019t see it in the paper. If something happens here, it\u2019s always in the newspaper, everyone knows about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr said, from her experience, the maintenance standards weren\u2019t comparable between the school district and private bus companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hit my brakes, I know they\u2019re going to stop me,\u201d she said. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t always the case with Krapf\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although most of the meeting was passionate but civil, tempers began to heat up as the meeting continued. Some parents objected to documents distributed by board member Paul Price, citing Wall Street Journal stories about public employee benefits and their impact on education programs, and Price referred to them noting that homeowners were paying tens of thousands of dollars a year in property taxes in Bronxville, N.Y.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are multi-million dollar homes,\u201d said parent Brian Dougherty of East Marlborough. He suggested that one of the stories had been poorly written and that Price was drawing the opposite conclusion intended from the other. \u201cThis is a poorly chosen thing to distribute \u2014 just to denigrate people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Board of Education members say no decision has been made, bids needed to get detailed financial information By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com POCOPSON \u2014 Stressing that the final decision had not been made, most members of the Unionville-Chadds Ford Board of Education expressed support for putting the district\u2019s school bus services out to bid for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,16],"tags":[113,123,161,44,71,24],"class_list":["post-2364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-2011-budget","tag-busing","tag-outsourcing","tag-school-board","tag-school-bus","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364","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=2364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}