SCS considering bus contract extension with Durham
Shelby County Schools is considering extending its transportation contract with Durham School Services, which would cost the district more money for drivers to be guaranteed a higher wage.
The contract, one of the district’s largest, would cost $24.2 million in the first year, and $25.3 million the second year of the two-year extension.
The current contract, which expires at the end of June, costs $21.7 million a year. But it only asked for drivers to be paid $11 an hour. Durham upped that to a minimum of $14 an hour after it had a hard time retaining drivers, SCS Chief of Business Operations Beth Phalen said, but now the contract cost is going up as a result.
Under the new contract, drivers would be paid a minimum of $14 the first year and $15 the second year.
“The board’s always talking about living wages and trying to do the best it can for the community,” Phalen said.
The bus contract conversation comes as SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson announced Tuesday that he plans to raise all full-time employees’ wages to at least $15 an hour, meaning increases for about 1,200 people.
Under the new contract, wages would also go up for bus monitors, who still make a minimum of $11 an hour.
Before the school district contracted with Durham, bus drivers serving SCS schools were paid over $15 an hour, Phalen said.
She said the company in the past has not always been open to sharing its wage data with the district, but has promised to do so under the new contract. By law, the district cannot demand contracted workers be paid a certain rate, but Phalen said Durham has agreed to the increases. They are in line with increases seen nationally for bus drivers, Phalen said, as Durham and other companies have had retention issues across the country due to the low wages.
A spokeswoman from Durham said she couldn’t comment until after the board votes.
The board discussed a two-year extension of the contract in a committee meeting on Tuesday and plans to vote on it next week.
But the district hasn’t been completely satisfied with Durham’s work to date. The school buses arrive on time 70 percent of the time, Phalen said. The new contract would allow Druham to receive a small bonus if 95 percent of buses are on time through the first year, and penalties if they don’t hit that benchmark. “We’re currently penalizing them for not meeting these metrics,” Phalen said.
Board member Stephanie Love said she hopes to see Durham improve its communication. If her child’s bus is due to arrive at 3:45 and doesn’t arrive until 4:15, Love said she expects to hear from the bus company telling her where her child is.
Board members also asked about whether advanced technology could be put in the buses that serve SCS students.
The Germantown Municipal School District this week launched an app in partnership with Durham that parents can use to track their students’ buses. All buses in the fleet that serves SCS already have GPS.
The number of buses and drivers would not change under the contract. Currently, Durham employs 357 drivers and another 154 special education monitors to serve SCS schools. About 23,000 students ride the bus every day.
Phalen said the board would either have to approve the extension or go out for bid for a new contract. Only three companies in the country—one of which is Durham—have the fleet capacity to serve SCS, she said.
“We’re assuming that we’d be lucky if we get one or two bidders,” Phalen said.