‘MAXIMIZE THE EFFICIENCY’

School district enters contract to review bus routes

EAST CALN >> Downingtown Area School Board members recently agreed to enter into a contract with Transfinder to evaluate all transportation routes for the school district.

Richard Fazio, finance director for the Downingtown Area School District, said they are reviewing the bus routes with Transfinder to analyze and “maximize the efficiency of the route design.”

The contract is in an amount not to exceed $45,000. Transfinder will review the 540 public routes for the district’s 16 schools. The company is not reviewing the non-public schools routes. The district buses students residing within its boundaries that attend private and charter schools.

“They are estimating that they can save us a number of (expenses), in excess of double digits,” Fazio said during the school board committeemeeting. “If they can save one run,

it certainly pays for itself.”

He said the buses for the secondary schools are not used at full capacity. Fazio said that the district has not changed the route design despite other changes, including redistricting and when the school day schedule was adjusted.

“Frankly, we intended to do this when we had redistricting. That was a great opportunity to look at our routes,” Fazio said. “We also had the opportunity to do it when we went from threetier to two-tier (school day schedule), but we weren’t in a position to do that so we’re contracting that out.”

Transfinder will be using the software that the district has. The software was purchased from Transfinder. Fazio noted that the district transportation staff has had some training on the software during this 2015-16 academic school year.

Fazio added that the district is hoping to shorten the bus commute, not enter as many cul-de-sacs, and to lessen the number of bus stops.

“We heard all this before. I’m glad that this is actually going to come to fruition,” school boardmember Suzanne Simonelli said. She noted that this will help the district save money.

School board member Carl Croft said that the district transportation employees previously did this process manually with an older program that was replaced two years ago.

Croft and Fazio noted that several district employees had discussed the matter with Transfinder. Croft said Transfinder reviewed several records at no cost to the district. Based on that brief review, Croft said that Transfinder estimated that it can save the district from eight to 10 bus routes.

“That’s half a million a year,” Croft said.

The board members unanimously consented to the contract.

PETE BANNAN — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA FILE PHOTO Students from Downingtown Middle School make their way to one of the 60school buses ready to take both middle and high school students from the Downingtown West-Downingtown Middle School campus.

PETE BANNAN — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA FILE PHOTO Downingtown Area School Board members recently agreed to enter into a contract with Transfinder to evaluate all transportation routes for the school district.