new contract conversion from a district-owned and -operated fleet, as it began outsourcing five years ago after the retirement of its transportation director, it is representative of a new customer experiencing “the Petermann Way.” Now Petermann’s vice president of operations,


Richard Templeton originally took over the opera- tions with his new company True Star. Ten, two years ago, Petermann acquired True Star. Manor ISD opted to stay with Petermann — under one condi- tion: the school district employees had a choice of who they would work for. Not a problem. While some of the drivers elected to remain with Manor ISD, Wal- lace said most became Petermann employees. Petermann seems to have a knack of helping dis-


tricts retain focus on its people while implementing efficiencies and cost savings, which didn’t take long to implement at Manor ISD. While giving drivers a choice, the company absorbed high ridership num- bers — over around 80- to 85 percent of the districts nearly 7,000 students, about three-quarters of which Wallace described as on the lower socioeconomic scale. So Petermann has helped the district to con- tinue providing safe school access. “It doesn’t matter where you live if you want to


ride the bus, you have the opportunity to ride the bus,” added Russell Wallace, the district’s assistant superintendent. “A lot of that has to do with the location of our elementary schools and access to them not having a safe walking path. For safety reasons we offer transpor- tation to everybody.” And, just as important in today’s eco-


nomic climate, Petermann has positively affected the district’s bottom line. Since taking over transportation operations at the start of the 2009-2010 school year, driver overtime has been reduced to $10,000 from $100,000. Petermann also performs all of the three-tier bus routing, making service much more efficient than when it took over the contract just before the start of school and being forced to roll with existing routes, according to Wal- lace. All that despite Manor ISD increasing ridership by 500 students prior to the start of this school year. And customer service has drastically improved, both


that of the parents and the individual school principals. “I can’t recall the last time someone called about


transportation,” Wallace said. It’s the result of a certain sense of empowerment


given to the company to do what it does best by al- lowing it ownership of district policy. Petermann employees handle all student bus discipline referrals so the principals no longer have to, and they handle all service requests, issues and challenges — and ev-


erything in between — with the parents. Te result is a very positive experience for all involved. “If Petermann was not doing a good job, I think we’d


have negative feelings about it,” Wallace added. “Our administrators wouldn’t have it any other way. Tey love the job they’re doing. Everybody has a very posi- tive relationship with Petermann. I can’t tell you what a relief they’ve been to have.” Settle likes to say there is no such thing as “McJobs”


at Petermann, how he refers to those drivers who merely punch a clock versus those who enjoy full- scale transportation careers. “School districts are under enormous budget pres-


sures, but they can unknowingly incur enormous costs if they only go with the lowest‐priced contrac- tor for their bus service,” he said recently. “[We’ve] earned the reputation of being a bargain, but we are not going to be ‘bargain basement,’ which is what some competitors are doing to stay alive.” Instead, the company’s true value comes from the


quality people that drive the school buses and who provide the support services to district clients. A bit closer to home, people are also very impor-


tant to Tallmadge City School District, a suburb of Akron, Ohio. It was another school district experi- encing the retirement of a long-time transportation director, Beverly Alestock. Te district was exploring its options of replacing her or going the route of an


❝ Te way they care about the employees


and about you as a district/client comes through in everything they do. ❞


— Jeff Hostetler, Treasurer Tallmadge (Ohio) City School District and Petermann Customer


outside contractor. Either way, the drivers’ union was going to have a major say in how things proceeded. Duplicating the existing employee wages and ben- efits was key to outsourcing. Tallmadge is another rather small district at only 2,700 students, of which 1,700 to 1,800 kindergartners through eighth graders ride the bus after high school routes were eliminated a few years ago. And it’s another area hit hard by the economy, as it is situated not far from what used to be the rubber capital of the world. So taking care of its employees is very important, said Jeff Hostetler, the district’s treasurer. “We talked to a couple of other contractors and


they said, ‘Look, we’ll hire your employees, but they become our employees, which means they fall under our salary schedule and our qualifications. And it’ll


www.stnonline.com 35


Photo: Alan Fuson of Ron Carroll Photography, Cincinnati, Ohio


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