School Board Plans to Reevalute Transportation Practices
By David Huck | Correspondent at October 26, 2023 | 7:00 pm | Print
The Board of Education has approved spending close to $15,000 for a transportation study that officials are hoping will bring about efficiencies and possible cost reductions.
The majority of the school district’s busing needs are through a contract with New Britain-based DATTCO, an arrangement that has lasted for several decades. Another transportation company, Town and Country, also provides services such as out of town transportation for special needs students, to the city.
“We’re hoping to bring in experts to look at our current routing, see what our real issues are, come up with some proposals, recommendations, to include what it would be to independently have our own bus fleet down the road and its cost effectiveness down the line,” Superintendent of Schools Kelt Cooper said. He added the information collected from the study can also be used when the school district goes out to bid next.
The city’s current contract with DATTCO was renewed in August 2012 and runs through June 30, 2017, according to Paul Salina, the school system’s chief operations officer. Over the next four years, the price increase of the contract with DATTCO goes up by 3.5 percent.
“It’s evident that we’ve been addressing transportation issues in the past year ad nauseam,” Cooper said during a recent school board meeting. “We’ve witnessed some rather interesting transportation practices in this district over the last decade or so.”
Those issues, which he didn’t identify, have caused him to reevaluate the city’s transportation arrangements. The transportation budget makes up around 10 percent of the Board of Education’s annual spending plan.
With the school district’s move to neighborhood schools, more students are walking to school. The school district is using six less buses than last year, at a savings of approximately $470,000, according to Salina.
Cooper said that one of the items the study will look at it is the possibility of the city operating it’s own buses and having it’s own “bus barn.”
The city relies on DATTCO to come up with efficient busing routes, but Cooper said that’s “like letting the fox watch the henhouse.” During the same school board meeting, a father complained this his daughter was having to walk to school since the data collected by DATTCO indicated the student lived less than 1.4 miles from her school. But the father measured the distance himself and said that’s not the case, she lives almost a half-mile more than that, necessitating the need for a bus.
According to an analysis done by Chief Financial Officer Kevin Kane, this year’s transportation costs are budgeted for $11.89 million. That includes $10.51 million for bus contracts, $745,000 for fuel, and $630,647 for bus monitors.
Next year, Kane is anticipating that the transportation budget will grow by 3.95 percent, or $469,284, to a total of $12.36 million. That’s due to the rate of the bus contracts going up, fuel costs increasing by $55,000, and the cost for bus monitors going up by 4.5 percent. In a memo to the school board, Kane stated, “It is my belief that this study will realize savings which will easily cover the cost of this study.”
Board member Aram Ayalon noted that towns like Glastonbury and Newington operate their own fleet of buses and do so at around 30 percent less than going through a private company.
Transportation Advisory Services, which is based out of New York, will undertake the review. Data collection is set to begin this month, followed by interviews within the district, an analysis during the winter, and a final report and recommendations to be made by December of January.
According to Salina, since the school board pays DATTCO with one invoice, the company gives the district a 2.5 percent discount of the invoice. DATTCO also issued a $100,000 credit to the school district for the 2013-14 school year. During the hours of 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. the school system is able to use DATTCO buses at no additional charge for field trips and other transportation of students both in and out of the city, Salina said. This allows for trips to places like the library, New Britain Museum of American Art, and other cultural and educational venues, Salina said.
