School Committee seeks bids for transportation contract

April 27, 2011

By Katelyn Gendron

Assistant Managing Editor

WESTFIELD — City officials are hoping a new round of bids for a five-year school transportation contract will yield a better deal.

Previous bidders were either too costly or disqualified over technicalities, Mayor Daniel Knapik explained. The City Council entertained a request from the School Department at its meeting last week to allow for a five-year contract, as opposed to a three-year agreement for additional savings.

"The timing couldn't be worse as diesel prices are now over $4 a gallon," Council President Christopher Keefe said of negotiating a new contract.

"It's my understanding that there is better pricing to be had extending it to five years versus three. We have to watch our spending in all areas so if there's any way for us to save money, I'm in favor of it," City Councilor Mary O'Connell said.

Knapik noted that another problem for the department is that part of the transportation costs were underwritten by federal stimulus money last fiscal year, which is no longer available.

School Committee member Kevin Sullivan said the department planned for an increase of $1.1 million for busing costs beginning July 1.

"We wanted to make sure there were some triggers that were benefits to the city that we can freeze the routes or add or subtract routes," Sullivan said of the new contract. "We do have worst case scenarios in the contract and the worst case scenario is diesel prices are $5 per gallon."

The district's 36 bus routes provide services for approximately 6,100 students.

In addition to increasing busing costs, the School Departments budget will see a 2.3 percent bump over fiscal year 2011, according to Knapik. "They were asking for 5 percent so they will take a cut there. There's going to be some cutting and use of reserve funds [to subsidize the overall municipal budget]," he added.

Sullivan said the School Committee plans to deliver its budget to the mayor sometime in the beginning of May and will hopefully have the busing contract finalized by July 1.

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