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Youngstown school board rejects busing pact
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Bus transportation and routes will continue to be handled by school district personnel after the school board rejected a $433,832 annual contract with a Warren company.
Board President Lock P. Beachum Sr. and members Rachel Hanni and Michael Murphy voted in favor of the contract with Community Bus Services Inc. Andrea Mahone, Marcia Haire-Ellis, Brenda Kimble and Richard Atkinson were opposed.
The contract was to save the district about $100,000 per year, district officials said.
Several members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which includes district bus drivers, attended Wednesday’s special school board meeting to show opposition to the proposed contract.
“It’s called outsourcing,” said Deborah Bindas, AFSCME Ohio Council 8 staff representative.
She said she questions the savings touted in the proposal.
In his performance evaluation earlier this year, board members told Superintendent Connie Hathorn to improve the transportation system, which incurred problems this year. Parents complained that their children were skipped or picked up or returned home late by buses.
Hathorn proposed the contract for student transportation management services with Community Bus Services, but it was removed from the regular board meeting agenda last week because board members had questions.
“The board asked me to talk with the [district’s] attorney to see if he had any concerns,” Hathorn said.
The only change the attorney made was to add a provision allowing the district to terminate the contract at any time, without cause, the superintendent said.
Bindas also questioned whether such a termination would require the district to pay what remains in the contract.
Mahone said she voted against the contract because she wants more than one alternative. She said she recognizes that the transportation system had a lot of problems earlier this school year.
“But you see our bus drivers, they really care about the system,” Mahone said. “They want to make it work.”
The people who work there know the system and are best equipped to make the required changes. Mahone said she also has concerns about Community Bus Services, which has worked in other Ohio school districts.