Bus Driver Pay Required During Pandemic

New Haven and Hamden school bus drivers will continue to get paychecks during the Covid-19 pandemic –- now not just because of a contract but also thanks to an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont.

Lamont issued Executive Order No. 7R on March 31 to ensure both school employees and contractors get paid despite school closures.

The New Haven Board of Education (BOE) Finance and Operations Committee discussed what the order would mean for city schools on Monday evening.

“This keeps employees paid and ready to roll, literally,” BOE attorney Elia Alexiades said over Zoom.

Because of a clause in New Haven’s contract with First Student, the school system has continued to pay the school bus contractor. New Haven Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto reported that some bus drivers had initially been furloughed but were now back to being paid.

Board member Matthew Wilcox asked Pinto to confirm with First Student that bus drivers and any other maintenance or other workers who were furloughed will get back pay as well.

“The board’s preference is we do want to make sure workers are paid,” Wilcox said.

In Hamden, bus drivers have been in limbo after schools closed, as the town, unlike New Haven, did not make a commitment to pay out its contract with First Student. Now that the governor has ordered towns to do so, the Hamden Board of Education must still decide on what exactly its agreement with the bus company will look like.

“We’re just beginning the phase of negotiations with the bus company,” said Hamden Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Tom Ariola. The board’s operations committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss revisions to its bus contract.

The order also allows NHPS to find some savings from the school closures. The order requires transportation contractors to bill only for whatever is necessary to have a fleet of buses and drivers ready to go when school resumes.

This means the school system will likely stop paying for the gas that would have powered the school bus trips. For a school system considering a shorter school year and fewer buses, these dollars count.

“Where we can renegotiate, we should,” BOE member Larry Conaway (pictured) urged district administrators.

Mayor Justin Elicker has offered the schools less in his proposed budget than the schools requested, which means the BOE has to make cuts somewhere. So far, Covid-related school closures have not saved the system much money.

Conaway pointed out that transportation costs — projected at $24 million over the next school year — make up a large percentage of the NHPS budget.

First Student buses helped the city move people from the Columbus House homeless shelter into hotel rooms. The first trip happened on Friday and other trips are scheduled to take place soon to help other shelters, Pinto said.

Pinto explained that the collaboration helps keep ​“the most vulnerable population in the city” from catching the novel coronavirus and spreading it to others.

The committee members asked whether NHPS would be on the hook for fuel, cleaning or legal costs related to these trips. Superintendent Iline Tracey said that NHPS is carefully documenting every Covid-related expense and will get reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Pinto said that NHPS is renegotiating with First Student and will have an update on the contract at the next Finance and Operations Committee meeting.

Sam Gurwitt contributed reporting.