Orland School District 135’s longtime bus company will be back next year at a steeper price.
The School Board voted 5-0 on Monday to cancel Student Transportation of America’s contract after one tumultuous year and bring back American School Bus Co., which had served the district for the past decade.
“We have a history with ABC,” board President Laura Berry said. “We value that history of the exemplary service they’ve given our students.”
The district was flooded with hundreds of complaints of late buses, missed stops and unprofessional drivers when Student Transportation took over last fall. The New Jersey-based company, which operates locally as Positive Connections, won the contract with a bid that was supposed to save $200,000 a year.
Now, bringing back American is expected to cost at least $500,000 more per year.
When the district rebid the contract this year, American upped its asking price by as much as 21 percent per route, bid documents show. It boosted its price for a single bus run to $268.35 after seeking $221.11 last year, when it lost to Positive Connections’ low bid of $209.31.
If District 135 were paying American’s higher rates this year, it’s $6 million bus contract would have grown by $800,000, officials have said. But next year’s launch of full-day kindergarten will eliminate midday bus runs, which is expected curb the higher cost by about $265,000.
John Bryk, District 135 assistant superintendent of operations, last month pegged some of American’s steeper costs on retention and new-hire bonuses the company hopes will stave off driver shortages linked to Positive Connections’ early struggles. He also attributed some of American’s higher price to the company’s plan to user lower emitting propane-fueled buses for at least half its fleet.
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Berry said a clause in the contract allowed the board to cancel Positive Connections’ three-year deal effective the June 30 close of this school year without a finding of fault or dissatisfaction.
District officials also say they weren’t unhappy last year, but because American had held the bus contract for so long, state law allowed requests for competitive bids to be filed by competitors, as one did. An American official said at the time that the company had served District 135 for three decades, including a 10 year period before this school year.