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Lyman, who manages all in-house busing. “We’ve gone through six months since we were in dire need of drivers.” Littleton Public Schools in Colorado also chose to keep its buses in-house. “Sometimes contractors can be just as efficient as in-house transporters,” Transportation Director Scott French said. “Tough school districts do a good job with customer service, there may be a time where a contractor could help keep costs down. Besides driver training programs, me- chanics and bus maintenance, districts must consider health and retirement benefits as well.” With 42 years of transportation experience, French said that district funding is getting harder to obtain while employee benefits are challenged, driver shortages are prevalent
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and many pros and cons of outsourcing services need be weighed. Mixing the resources of the school dis- trict busing and contracting services helps relieve various trending problems, though “Driver shortages monopolize our resourc- es,” said Creighton School transportation director Cathy Erwin in Phoenix. Te district outsources transportation only for special needs routes while Erwin manages all other regular and activity routes. Te district pairs schools together to transport students under the federal McK- inney-Vento Homeless Education Act, as it may take an hour or more to transport students to their schools. Te use of vans and mini-buses are often preferred for lon- ger distances. Erwin also said their district partners with other districts to supplement time and driver availability. Tony Briscoe, transportation director for Oxnard Unified School District near Ventura, California, responded that his district is not currently experiencing a driver shortage. Oxnard has a total of 55 total bus routes, but the district contracts with Durham School Services to transport students on 48 of them. Briscoe manag- es the remaining seven in-house regular education buses. He said the district plans to increase its
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fleet by adding four smaller buses for special needs, pre-school, and service for students falling under the McKinney-Vento law. “Tough we have no current driver shortage, the contract with Durham provides that it will (cover) services for up to 20 percent of the district’s fleet, should it become neces- sary to cover our driver’s illnesses, etc.” According to the Bellwether report, public transportation is another mode used mostly in large urban areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other urban areas. Te report states that reliance on public transit is much less common. Under this method, students commute to school using the city’s existing public transit infrastructure. Often, the district, city, or county partially or fully subsidizes students’ fares. However, relying on public transit provides districts with little or no control over operations. ●
Read more about the Bellwether Report at
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20 School Transportation News • JULY 2017 CELEBRATING25YEARS
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