Following a competitive bidding process, Warren County Schools transitioning its student transportation services to a new firm.
Director of Schools Grant Swallows said the new contract with Ecco Ride begins July 1 after the company provided the low bid. It came during a required five-year review of transportation services. Swallows said the transition involves a complete changeover of the bus fleet and the transfer of current drivers to the new vendor.
“We took steps, really some exhaustive steps, to make sure that any employee that wanted to continue driving a bus in Warren County would have the opportunity to do so with the new company,” Swallows said. “So we were never concerned about that, and just that, that honestly, we had somewhat turned the page when that notice went out.”
Swallows said the contract with Durham School Services officially ends June 30 after serving the district for approximately 15 to 20 years. Swallows said the district received five bids.
“I think it’s competitive,” Swallows said. “I don’t think you’re paying a lot more to contract them out. It’s more of a managerial and personal, personnel, and really kind of a liability setting as well, when, when a company is contracted to provide student transportation. There’s not as much liability on the district.”
Swallows said the new contract includes a provision requiring Ecco Ride to seek employment for every current driver and provide written notification to the district if any individual is not hired.
“We understood those concerns,” Swallows said. “And so when you go through this process to where you have competitive bids every five years, that’s a risk that you take of a new company coming in with a lower bid and potentially taking over student transportation. And that leaves the drivers and the employees in, in the middle of a messy situation. And so that was, that was not easy and we, we had a lot of emotional conversations with some employees and a lot of them were upset and I completely understand why.”
Swallows said the new agreement includes a pay increase of six dollars per hour for new drivers and an additional hour of work per day. Swallows said the district does not anticipate any service interruptions in August because the current drivers already know the local routes.
“I’m happy to report that on the other side of that, many of them are now very pleased with the new company because as a part of the bid, we required that their pay pay go up pretty considerably,” Swallows said.
Swallows said the new bus fleet is ready to be moved into Warren County ahead of the start of the new school year.
