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Albert Gallatin awards bus contract

By Eric Morris emorris@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

YORK RUN — The Albert Gallatin Area School Board awarded a five-year contract to Student Transportation of America to provide school bus transportation to the district.

Student Transportation will begin to service the district with a brand new fleet of buses that run on propane when the company’s term commences July 1, replacing First Student bus company as the district’s transportation provider.

According to district transportation director Bill Parnham, the contract is expected to cost the district $2.72 million in the first year, $2.8 million in the second year and $2.88 million in the third year. All figures include the cost of fuel, which the district will be providing.

While propane prices typically remain stable, Parnham said, he did not feel it appropriate to project fuel prices for the fourth and fifth years of the contract.

The contract was approved on a 7-1 vote. School director Charity Grimm Krupa voting against the measure and Ryan Porupski abstained.

Krupa expressed concern over an anticipated increase in fuel costs by choosing Student Transportation over First Student. Based on figures provided to the board by Parnham, she said, fuel will cost the district an additional $77,400 and $82,500 in the first two years of the contract.

“Nothing’s been presented to me to justify why we need to spend that extra money. I get that with the proposal for (Student Transportation) it’s a brand new fleet. (But) as long as our kids get to school safely I don’t care about cutting edge buses,” Krupa said.

“I don’t see how it’s fiscally responsible to go with the contract that is this much more in Year 1 and Year 2 alone.”

Parnham said following the meeting that while the district expects to pay more for fuel under the new contract, the elimination of a few bus routes and the use of new district mini buses will help mitigate the cost.

The district will save about $55,000 a year by running its own small fleet of mini buses for some routes, in addition to a $50,000 annual discount the district negotiated with Student Transportation to be applied against daily rate costs, Parnham said.

Parnham also said the stability of the propane market compared to the volatile nature diesel could keep the district from experiencing a large increase in future fuel costs if the district were to remain with First Student, whose buses run on diesel.

With Student Transportation’s new fleet of buses, the district will benefit from an additional year of receiving state reimbursement at higher level due to operating newer vehicles, Parnham said.

Through the new contract, the district will incur a net cost increase of about $29,000 in the first year, said Parnham.

“It’s slightly more, but we believe you get what you pay for, which is a better, safer product.”

Turning to other business, the district awarded several contracts related to a crawl space abatement and ventilation project at Albert Gallatin Area High School.

Whitby Inc. of Uniontown was awarded a heating, ventilation and air conditioning contract with a base bid of $45,600, and an asbestos abatement contract was awarded to Hometeam Property at a total amount of $26,951.

The board approved payment to SafeCo Environmental Services in the amount of $1,200 for hazardous and asbestos-containing material removal, and accepted a proposal from SafeCo for daily air monitoring and asbestos testing for the project.

In personnel matters, the board awarded several positions to cafeteria employees for the 2018-19 school years, including Dawn Davis, 7-hour, A.L. Wilson; Michelle Dice, 6.75-hour, AG North; Rebecca Martinko, 5.5-hour, AG South; and Sharon Wesolowsky, 4-hour, high school.

Kelly Kotarsky and Jennifer Rosier were awarded 3.75-hour positions at AG North and AG South, respectively.

The board also recalled furloughed instructor Tim Dye to the open high school health position for the 2018-19 school year and hired Kathy Shamrock as a full-time bus monitor.

The board also:

n Entered a contract with SapphireK12 for the purchase of a student information system at a subscription cost of $72,798 and one-time training and implementation cost of $38,400.

n Authorized an audit agreement with The SpyGlass Group wherein SpyGlass will identify telecommunication service elimination and cost reduction savings for the district and receive a fee equal to one year’s savings for any service elimination or cost reduction approved for implementation by the district’s controller and technology director.

n Accepted the resignations of security employee James Pierce, high school counselor Laura Jones and bus monitors Frances Sherman and Teena Senda.

n Revised the 2017-18 school calendar, with June 6 as students’ last day and graduation.

n Approved the 2018-19 school calendar, with Aug. 27 as the first day for students and May 31, 2019, as students’ last day and graduation.

n Reinstated the freshmen boys’ baseball team commencing this spring.

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