City schools OK busing contract

By Harold Gwin

Board members said they are still interested in CBS’ management services offer.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board has approved a special-needs pupil transportation contract with Community Bus Services Inc.

Youngstown will pay CBS a minimum of $1,573,965 in the first year of the three-year agreement, based on providing transportation for a minimum of 450 pupils. That’s about $350,000 less than it paid the company last year.

If the number to be transported rises above that mark, the district will pay an additional $8.29 per day for each additional child.

The contract has automatic 3.8 percent annual increases built into it, raising the minimum cost to $1,634,040 in 2009-2010 and $1,695,717 in 2010-2011.

The additional charge per child over the 450 level will rise to $8.61 in the second year and $8.93 in the third.

CBS was the lone bidder on the contract.

The contract cost includes the price of fuel used by CBS, although the agreement does include a fuel adjustment clause that would increase the contract expense if diesel fuel rises above $4.51 per gallon.

The school district would then be required to pay the difference between $4.51 and the actual cost of the fuel.

That base-level price will increase to $4.68 per gallon in the second year and $4.85 per gallon in the third year of the contract.

In a related issue, the board indicated it wants to talk further with CBS about the company’s offer of a management services contract that it guaranteed would save the district $1 million a year in overall transportation costs. The district paid $5.5 million for transportation last year.

The CBS guarantee was tied to a proposed five-year special-needs busing contract, but Thomas has indicated he is willing to take a look at what savings his company can guarantee over a three-year period.

The management services agreement would have CBS take over control of routing and other aspects of the district’s bus fleet, although the current employees would remain district employees and not be employed by CBS.

The school board’s business committee intends to take up the management services contract issue at its next meeting in August.

gwin@vindy.com