Catskill school board inks bus contracts
Cost of transporting students going up in 2009
The Daily Mail
July 30, 2009

CATSKILL — The Catskill Central School District Board of Education approved contracts Wednesday evening with First Student and Coxsackie Transport to shuttle more than 1,600 students between their homes and the district’s three school buildings during the upcoming school year.

District Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Farrell said she had anticipated an increase in cost for shuttling first- through 12th-grade students to the district’s three school buildings.

District Assistant Superintendent for Business Kimberly Lewis said the cost of the service would cost about 30 percent more than last year’s service.

That contract was awarded to the First Student busing company.

“The good news is even though the cost is up, it is nothing we did not budget for and did not anticipate,” Farrell said.

Roughly $2 million was budgeted for transportation costs for the 2009-10 school year.

The contract will cost $60,348 per bus and is based on 20 buses.

Any bus monitors or attendants the district requested would be paid $15,000.

The contract requires a $54,834 cost to add or cancel a bus trip.

Lewis said a local company had been interested in contracting with the district but the change in certain bus routes had not been finalized in time for an agreement to be reached.

Farrell said a company in Columbia County had also been contacted but could not add service in Catskill to its current rounds.

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students will be bused this coming year by Coxsackie Transport.

Four buses will transport children to Catskill Elementary School at a cost of $54,735 each. One bus will make four daily trips from students’ homes to the school, another bus will make two daily trips and two buses will make three daily trips.

The cost for adding a bus during the year would be $54, 735, as well, and the fee for canceling a bus would be $35,000.

The district could request a bus monitor or attendant for $17,220, each. Aids will be present on the morning bus to the school and the afternoon bus leaving the school, Farrell said.

She said that the two bus services provide a good return for their dollar.

“Coxsackie Transport and First Student have been attentive to our requests and our needs in terms of safety and training for drivers and equipment upgrades and other issues,” Farrell said.

She said allowing pre-K and Kindergarten students on the same bus makes financial sense, as does running door-to-door service on one vehicle.

“[Kids] will do a little bonding, hopefully positive bonding,” she said.

Board member Michael Bulich said he thought parents of young students should be responsible for bringing their children to and from school.

“I am on the fence with letting little kids, that age, on a bus,” he said.

Lewis said another bid request had been issued Wednesday for transportation of students in special and athletic programs.