City schools to save on busing with new CBS contract

By Harold Gwin

CBS is guaranteeing the district $1 million in annual savings in transportation costs.

YOUNGSTOWN — The president of Community Bus Services Inc. said his company would lose $1 million in the first year of a proposed five-year special education busing contract with the city schools, but it’s a loss he’s willing to take.

CBS is the only company to submit a special education transportation proposal to the district, and the school board’s business committee reviewed the plan Friday with Terrence Thomas, CBS president.

CBS is the current provider for special education transportation in the district and is willing to provide the service again at the same price of just under $2.4 million.

The company, however, also wants to fold in some fleet management services for the district’s entire bus fleet that it says can save the district $1 million annually in total pupil transportation costs.

Thomas is so sure the savings are there that he is making the $1 million a year cost reduction a guarantee.

If Youngstown fails to save that much money, CBS will make up any difference, he said.

The district now spends about $5.5 million a year on transportation costs with just over $3 million of that going to carry some 4,500 pupils on its regular routes.

Thomas said it will take most of the first year of a five-year contract just to thoroughly examine the city school transportation system and come up with savings proposals.

That means CBS will have to eat the first year’s guaranteed savings, he said.

“We will lose significant money in year one,” he said, later speculating the loss would be “$1 million plus.” In addition to the savings guarantee, CBS will buy and install digital video recorders and global positioning system units in all of the buses at its own cost, estimated at $250,000, Thomas said. Those systems will help reduce routing and other costs, he said.

The special education portion of the proposal will require some refinement.

School officials said they expect the number of special education pupils to number only about 450 next year, not 699.

Thomas said the contract can be “repriced” using the lower number, but he made no guarantee of what the final number will be.

Whatever it is, the $1 million saving guarantee will stand, he told the committee.

Thomas said the savings will be realized through route changes, fleet reduction and insurance costs, maintenance, fuel, facilities, training and more.

Youngstown would still maintain its own fleet of buses and employees for its regular routes. CBS would continue to provide the special education buses.

Committee members seemed pleased with the proposals and advised Thomas to put them into contractual form for the district to review. The old CBS contract expires June 30.

Committee member Lock P. Beachum Sr. said he likes the plan, “as long as we can see some money out there to reduce that deficit.”

He was referring to a general fund budget deficit that stands at $10.4 million this year.

gwin@vindy.com