money, with the Rochester board predicting $12 million in cost-savings over the next three years. Yet, other school districts have found that
CONTRACTOR
keeping bus operations in-house is not nec- essarily cost-prohibitive. Palm Beach County (Fla.) Schools backed away from outsourcing as a cost-savings measure in February. In Illi- nois, the Gary and Valley View school boards decided to eliminate outsourcing because the small cost-savings did not justify it, with Gary board members also citing “wrongdoing” by the contractor.
Robert Streeter, transportation director at Dysart Unified School District in Surprise,
Ariz., northwest of Phoenix, said money was not the reason why the district reversed its decision to outsource and returned to in-house transportation five years ago. “It wasn’t a matter of cost as much as performance, especially getting the kids to
school on time, which is really important,” said Streeter, who came to transportation from the business world around the same time as the switch. “Tey gave the company several opportunities to improve their performance.” When the transportation department initially took back school-bus service, he said
they were operating below the contracted costs. Now, expenses have increased largely because Dysart’s student population increased from 6,000 to 26,000 in the past decade. “Te cost would have gone up with a contractor anyway because I’ve had to add
staff,” Streeter said. “It’s not to say that everybody should keep it in-house or that no- body should — they have to look at what best suits their operations and their district.”
THE SPREAD OF PRIVATIZATION — AND MAINSTREAMING Vaughan said STA has discovered “an appetite to outsource” in several states. “Florida
is a primary state, and we’re also seeing it in Vermont, Pennsylvania and Michigan,” he continued. “Tey’re all challenged with their operating budgets, their capital budgets, and they’re seeking ways to avoid cutting pencils and textbooks from their curriculum.” Klaus reported that outsourcing is growing in both the Midwest and Southeast, while
Benish said that Cook-Illinois has gained five new Illinois contracts in the past two years. “Outsourcing is increasingly becoming more popular in states and districts with bud-
get constraints due to the significant cost savings that can be realized,” First Student’s Gillie added. “We work closely with our legislative and district partners to ensure they have the necessary information to make an informed decision.” He stressed that home- to-school transportation has been shrinking in certain states for various reasons. “Special education is not growing or shrinking, but rather shifting. It has been mainstreamed over the past several years and moved onto regular buses in many areas,” he said. Vaughan said STA has not seen bus-service losses but rather more examples of main-
streaming students with special needs into regular-education transportation. “Districts don’t make those choices lightly. IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) are given careful consideration,” he added. “We have seen a steady increase in special needs transportation for many years,” Klaus
said. “In certain states, we have seen reductions in regular-ed. home-to-school transpor- tation where school districts are dealing with significant reductions in funding.” Benish echoed that Cook-Illinois has been trending toward special-ed transportation,
which makes up 65 percent of its business. “We are starting to replace ‘cabs’ and seeing more one-on-one transportation,” he said. While all agreed that athletic trips remain an oft-requested niche service, school func-
tions, field trips and inter-district shuttling are also pieces of the transportation pie. “If the funds don’t permit for extracurricular trips, the various constituents and com-
munities get together. Tey don’t like to see those trips eliminated, so they rally the folks for support,” said Vaughan. ■
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