Maya McFadden file photo
First Student buses, OK'd for another year.
The Board of Alders “reluctantly” approved a one-year, $30.7 million school bus contract between the Board of Education and First Student that would have been nearly $1 million cheaper had the school board not turned down an initial multi-year deal with the bus company.
At Wednesday’s latest monthly full Board of Alders meeting, held in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, local legislators unanimously approved that one-year First Student contract.
Representing a 8.75 percent increase over the current year’s cost, the new contract covers regular and special education in-town and out-of-town school bus transportation for the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district’s 330 bus routes for the fiscal year that started July 1.
The final approval follows the school board’s initial 4 – 3 vote in May against a new $93 million, three-year contract with First Student for regular, special education, and out-of-town bussing services. As the school year neared an end and summer school approached, the school board voted at a subsequent meeting in June to approve a one year contract extension with First Student instead. A few weeks ago, an aldermanic committee advanced that one-year contract, even as some alders criticized the school board for putting them in an unfairly tight spot with summer school just around the corner.
Before the alders took a final vote of support for the one-year deal on Wednesday, Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand and Majority Leader and Amity/Westville Alder Richard Furlow spoke up about the contract.
“The current contract has expired and a recent motion before the Board of Education to award a comprehensive new multi-year contract with First Student failed to pass,” Marchand said. “This outcome was despite the fact that the proposed contract contained several positive features including rates more favorable to the city. As a result of that Board of Education vote, this one-year extension is the only option that will enable the district to provide essential transportation serves for New Haven public school students, both for the summer and the school year starting in the fall.”
Marchand described the school board’s failed vote for the multi-year contract as “unfortunate.”
Majority Leader Furlow at Wednesday's meeting.
Furlow said to his colleagues, “I reluctantly stand in support of this item.”
He began his remarks by expressing appreciation for the work that the Board of Education members put into their volunteer roles but made clear that “they got this one wrong.”
“I just want to go on the record to encourage them to think about the long-term effects of the contracts that they make, the fiscal impact it has. If we were to vote not in favor of this the repercussions that it would have upon our students and schools as we are pushing for better education for our children to be able to raise their scores in reading and writing, it would really set us backwards,” Furlow said.
Furlow continued, “I’m really disappointed in the vote that the Board of Ed had, once again respecting the hours of work that they put in as volunteers, but I must encourage them to do better and to be better fiscal agents of the money that they are responsible for.”
Reading this article about the necessity to spend 30 million dollars to transport children from one side of town to the other is such a waste of taxpayer dollars. In order to achieve educational parity, I feel that amount of money could be spent improving the quality of educational services in each school. Additional staff, additional resources for educators, more diversified curriculum options, after school programs, bringing back programs long ago eliminated like theater, photography, music, art, and the list goes on. How about increasing salaries for staff, hiring para's, social workers, sports coaches and again the list goes on. At the risk of repeating myself, why not use the 30 million dollars to improve the quality of educational services that the New Haven public schools could provide.