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or some districts, contracting all aspects of transpor- tation operations makes the most sense. Others prefer to contract for specialized populations or students that live so far outside of the district boundary, send-
ing a school bus doesn’t make sense. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in North Carolina
prefers to transport students with its own drivers and employees on their vehicles, but Superintendent Crystal Hill knows that’s not always possible. She shared CMS contracts as needed for a special population of students, whether they are served under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act or require special accommodations as per their individualized education program. The district contracts transportation for a total of 3,000 students across 12 different providers, including wheelchair transport companies, cab companies, and alternative transportation com- panies such as EverDriven. One special circumstance, she said, is when students are
overstimulated on a school bus and need a smaller vehicle. CMS ensures contractors are properly trained by requiring all drivers of exceptional children with IEPs, McKinney-Vento Act provisions, Section 504 plans, and in foster care to attend training programs conducted by CMS personnel. Each vendor also provides registered and insured vehicles in
accordance with CMS contractual obligations, including the use of cars, vans and wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Hill added the district is also working on partnering with
public transportation to allow students the opportunity to ride for free. She explained that the district’s board of education adopted goals and priorities for the school year, operating from a governance model focused on student outcomes. She said transportation ensures access to programs. In the past, she said, administration and district officials set programs and relied on transportation to transport students there, regardless of timing, resources and location throughout the district. “Now what we’re really trying to do is focus on making sure
that we have equitable programs in different parts of the coun- ty, so the students have access to those programs that are most close to them, while at the same time providing transporta- tion,” she said. Transportation also transitioned from door-to-door stops to express bus stops, which shortened the amount of time students are on the bus. “Efficiency has been huge,” she said of the express stops, adding that transportation has over 26,000 bus stops and 838 school bus drivers, traveling over 17 million miles a year. “The other thing using that method has really supported us with is the amount of drivers we need to run routes,” she said.
Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin sees the benefits of working with a school bus contractor.
Expanding Transportation’s Role Lake Villa Community Consolidated School District 41 in Illinois
contracts its entire operation, to the point where the district feels it doesn’t need a transportation director. Superintendent Sandra Keim-Bounds said contracting out all aspects of transportation helps meet student needs efficiently. The decision to contract, she said, is based on cost-effective-
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