Members of the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education are urging district administrators to look more closely at the performance and pricing of vendors contracted to provide transportation for students at the high school, particularly since school bus costs are rising.
During a committee of the whole meeting on June 18, the board discussed renewing contracts for three transportation companies — two of which are charging the district more than they did last year.
Board members discussed a one-year, $333,068 contract with First Student, which provides busses for OPRF students on field trips and during other extracurricular activities, which is a 2.5 percent increase over last year’s contract.
They also discussed a one-year, $1.6 million contract with Grand Prairie Transit, which provides busses for special education students. District officials said Grand Prairie is charging 3.5 percent more for local routes and 2.5 percent more for out-of-district routes than it did last year.
Last fiscal year’s contract with Grand Prairie was 9 percent more costly than the previous year.
The one-year, $150,271 contract with All-Ways Medical Carriers, which provides transportation for medically fragile students, does not involve a cost increase over the previous year’s contract.
District officials said 80 to 90 percent of the district’s annual transportation costs are reimbursed, with the state determining final reimbursement percentages. On June 18, Carolyn Gust, the school district’s director of purchasing and transportation, said that she was able to negotiate a lower price increase with Grand Prairie, which had initially wanted a 6.5 percent increase.
“I told them no,” Gust said, referencing the original increase.
In a memo, Gust and Cyndi Sidor, the district’s interim chief school business official, explained that neighboring school districts that have gone through the transportation bid process ended up with increases of between 10 and 35 percent.
On average, Gust said, the average annual renewal increase for the other school districts she and her colleagues evaluated was around 4 percent, “which is still higher than what we got this year.”
Gust and Sidor explained in the memo that transportation costs are rising for D200 and surrounding districts because of a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers, which has meant “that school bus companies have had to offer incentives in order to retain existing drivers, i.e. hourly wage increases, attendance bonuses, safety bonuses, and retention bonuses.”
In a June 11 letter to Gust, Thomas M. O’Sullivan, Grand Prairie’s vice president of contracts and bids, explained that “the driver shortage is now at a critical level,” and that his company has increased its starting rate by 4.5 percent of the start of the 2019-20 school year.
But some board members said that, regardless of the national shortage, D200 should do more to monitor the quality of service they’re getting from transportation companies for what they pay.
District officials said they do not collect standardized data tracking the performance of bus routes, such as pickup/drop-off times and utilization rates. Most of that information is anecdotal, said Gwen Walker-Qualls, the district’s senior director of pupil services.
“I’d suggest [we collect data], given that it’s an evaluative tool,” said D200 board President Jackie Moore. Walker-Qualls agreed.
Not satisfied with Grand Prairie’s explanation for its price increases, some board members said the district should go out to bid for transportation contracts.
“We need to bid out contracts,” said board member Craig Iseli, adding that, despite the 2.5 percent that Gust negotiated, the district should be more vigilant.
“This is eight years with [Grand Prairie],” Iseli said. “I understand what you’re saying is going on in the market, but that just tells me that the market is not competitive. If they’re spiking us, it’s because they can get away with it … and that just forces you into this situation. On that basis, I’m not going to support this contract. … We’ve got to renew these in a competitive way.”
“I do agree that it’s important to bid out these services,” said board member Tom Cofsky.
The board is expected to vote on the three contracts during its regular meeting on June 27.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com