rss
mobile
Feeds
Durham School Services of Warrenville, Ill., just began a five-year contract with the Beaufort County School District to get students to and from school.
Last week was chaotic. Buses ran late. Some students were not picked up from stops. Some students arrived home late. Phone calls were not answered. At times, the bus company's voicemail was full.
One reason is change. The school year started with a new bus service and three new schools -- Bluffton Middle School, Pritchardville Elementary School and Whale Branch Early College High School. That meant new routes, and new ways that routes had to be coordinated between schools. It led to a "domino effect" of problems felt at other schools.
On Friday afternoon, both the school district and the bus service issued letters of apology and outlines of new tactics they hope will end the daily problems and improve communication.
Were it not for the Bluffton Police Department organizing the mayhem in school parking lots and school administrators pulling extra duty, the problems would have been much, much worse.
The only real reason to hire out the bus service is to avoid these problems. It's a way to allow educators to educate, rather than be thrown into the transportation business. We should not forget that the Beaufort County schools faced chronic, persistent problems with buses -- including maintenance, routes and drivers -- for many years before taking the bold move in 1995 to contract the service out to professionals.
Durham School Services is the third firm to get the district contract over that period. The school board was surprised late last year when its former transportation provider, First Student, sought a big fee increase, from $3.4 million to $4 million. First Student had been providing the service since 2004, replacing Laidlaw Educational Services, and apparently ending most of the complaints that had been waged against Laidlaw.
One of options the school district considered when it got the big price hike from First Student was to return to running the bus service itself. That would be a mistake. While the district cannot divorce itself from the responsibilities that come with running some 135 school bus routes, the schools are much better served when principals don't spend a big part of their day tending to transportation.
That's where Durham School Services needs to step up and get the job done. We're confident it can do it. The company serves more than 300 school districts in 30 states. It has been building experience since it started as a three-bus company in California in 1917. With that record, nothing Beaufort County throws at it should be unusual or insurmountable.
It's time for the bus service contractor to do its job so educators can get back in the classroom, parents can quit worrying and police can get back on patrol.
