Troubled by reports of deteriorating service and equipment, the Salt Lake City School District has told the Tran Spec Contract Busing Inc. to hit the road - three months ahead of schedule.
In April, the district school board broke its contract with the private provider over concerns of poor service and a proposed rate hike. At that time, both parties agreed the carrier would work for city schools until Aug. 1.On Tuesday in a joint meeting of the school board and Salt Lake City Council, school board President Karen Derrick announced as of May 1, student busing was being operated by the district.
"In self-defense, we needed to go in and take it over," said district business administrator Gary Harmer said.
After the contract was canceled, Tran Spec had no incentive to bring on new equipment or "maintain the equipment at a level where it ought to be."
The company was understaffed, but Harmer said he believes the district now has an adequate number of drivers to complete the school year. Some of the newly hired drivers formerly drove buses for the school district.
Reinstating an in-house transportation department will cost the district at least $1.5 million above its normal transportation budget, according to a school board memo.
The district will need to buy back the buses it sold to Tran Spec and perhaps buy even more buses to cope with the reconstruction of I-15.
Tran Spec drivers recently voted to be represented by the Operating Engineers, Local No. 3. Previously, the drivers were represented by the Utah School Employees Association. It is unclear what organization will represent the drivers now that the service is back under the district's umbrella.
Regardless of the drivers' union, negotiations will have to wait.
"We've set aside the negotiation issues until we're up and running," Harmer said.
Tran Spec was hired after a series of personnel problems within the district's own department. District officials believed the move would save money.
But Tran Spec was overwhelmed by the complexity of the Salt Lake routes, company officials said.
The first few weeks of school, school district phones rang off the hook with complaints about the company's service.
Some buses did not come to appointed stops. Others were late. Drivers got lost. Parents of special education students complained their children were kept on buses too long, drivers were insensitive to their children or drivers and aides failed to ensure special-needs children were properly supervised once they were dropped off at school.
But the company was able to provide service to some schools that previously had no service.
After months of complaints and a request for more money, the school board voted 7-0 to return to an in-house busing service.