D135 Renews Bus Company Contract for Less Than Expected

has extended its bus company contract through the 2012-2013 school year with a slight increase in payment, in order to keep a reliable company, school officials said.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Services John Reiniche told District 135 board members last month that he was negotiating an extension with ABC for the 2012-2013 school year in advance and expecting to settle on a 1.5 percent increase. Between then and Monday night's board meeting, however, Reiniche got the bus company to come down an additional half-percent on that anticipated amount.

“Besides being relatively cost effective, the service has been impeccable,” Board President John Carmody said of ABC.

It’s one thing to pick up high school students, he added, but with elementary school districts "you’re going to get some very, very small children, and you need to have a certain sensitivity towards them. Safety is our number one priority.”

This was the fourth one-year extension of an initial three-year agreement signed in 2005. State law allows school districts to extend busing contracts on a one-year basis so long as they haven’t received a “timely” request for bid from another interested contractor, Reiniche recently wrote in a memo to Superintendent Paul Howell.

He noted that District 135 is among the largest elementary school districts in the state, with a dynamic system involving more than 500 routes taken a day.

Last year, the district spent approximately $4.7 million on busing, which is reimbursed by the state, Reiniche said.

Actual dollar figures are based on the number of routes per year and broken down as follows:

2011-2012

2012-2013

Single Run

$206.10

$208.16

Double Run

$206.10

$208.16

Triple Run

$311.40

$314.51

Mid-Day Run

$54.50

$55.05

Mid-Day Double Run

$102.94

$103.97

One-Way Shuttle

$40.95

$41.36

Round Trip Shuttle

$81.93

$82.75

Field Trip – 3 Hour Basis

$112.32

$113.44

Early Dismissal (Private)

$73.14

$73.87

(Source: Amendment to bus contract between ABC and District 135)

Updated Sept. 15 at 10:53 a.m. to add last year's bus expenditures.