The Salem Grade School Board Thursday night dropped Durham Transportation and approved a considerably more expensive alternative they hope will solve the district’s undependable bus service.
The board voted to enter into a three year contract with family owned Robinson Transportation of Harrisburg at a first year cost difference of nearly $192,000. The decision came after considerable discussion about bus problems the last few years where busses sometimes didn’t show up, routes had to be combined because of a shortage of drivers, and some parents were requested to pick up their own students if possible.
Superintendent Dr. Leslie Foppe says the school’s administration was often left to solve bussing issues and had to eventually hire a paraprofessional to watch students who could not immediately be taken home due to the lack of bus drivers.
Eric Robinson of Robinson Transportation promised the board bus drivers would start at $20 per hour and all busses would be just a year or two old at most. He said all drivers from Durham would be interviewed for jobs and all of the staff would be hired locally. Robinson says the family name is on the busses and their reputation is important.
A Durham official told the board they now had a full roster of drivers, would offer better pay, move in some newer busses and work to improve communications
problems.
Foppe says Robinson Transportation had all good references from other districts using their service.
“We feel the employees will be so happy to be paid more. I had been hoping for that for quite awhile. I feel like they need and deserve it, it’s a very high pressure job and I want them to feel appreciated. And the newer busses are needed. Although we are all nervous about this cost we are also very excited of the prospect of our drivers being paid more and in better vehicles for our kids.”
Robinson Transportation’s contract for all routes will total $839,098 in the first year of the contract, with a 4.3-percent increase each of the second and third years.
Foppe says the contract may result in the transportation fund moving slightly into the red for the next fiscal year, but she says the district has built up a $982,000 surplus in the transportation fund.
