remarks. She said two of the reasons Portland Public Schools share the transportation duties with First Stu- dent are capital expenses and employee benefits. “In Oregon, we are constantly in the realm of dwin-
dling budgets,” Brady said. “We don’t have the capital outlay, and our drivers receive a six-hour daily guarantee, with full health and retirement benefits.” Brady said Portland pays contractors a base rate of 3.2 hours and an hourly rate on top of that. “What that means is, on the routes that are under four-and-a-half hours, we save money. The contractors own their vehi- cles and employ their drivers.” Brady said First Student covers 134 general education
routes and 55 special needs routes, while the district cur- rently covers 82 special needs routes. “There was a time when the district ran big buses, but for the last 12 years, we’ve been all special education,” Brady said. “It’s a cost-ef- ficiency thing. A lot of our routes are under four hours, so it doesn’t make sense to pay a six-hour guarantee to a driver.” Paul Arnett is the operations manager for Cascade Stu- dent Transportation in Meridian, Idaho. He explained that
customer West Ada School District decided to divest itself of in-house student transportation operations, because of the cost of replacing equipment, and an overhead ex- pense of wages and benefits. Arnett said the district also relieved itself of the basic burden of running a business that included employees, service maintenance costs, em- ployee replacement and general upkeep of equipment. “These things weigh heavily on a school district,” Arnett said. “We brought in 78 new buses at an estimated cost of $10 million. That can put a financial strain on a district. They’ve got finite budgets and they have to look at cutting services to keep going.” Arnett said growth is also a factor in the district’s deci-
sion to outsource its transportation services. “At the rate the district is growing, they’re already looking at adding one new school per year for the next 10 years,” he elaborated. Arnett said Cascade, and STA subsidiary, is replacing the
district’s older buses with new ones that they own. He said 143 buses in the fleet are owned by Cascade and 107 are owned by the district. West Ada is another school district that has outsourced its student transportation for years.
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