Bus decision

[Barbara]

I am posting this message to notify any reader of the "Possible Action" to be taken tonight on the FWSU transportation bid.
The FWSU board is meeting in the Fairfax Library at 7 PM and this item is on the agenda.
If the board votes to accept one of the bids to be presented, Fairfax will have decided to no longer have a bus fleet.
Three members of the Bellow's Free Academy school board are on the FWSU board.
I believe that makes any vote they are a party to, binding for the home board.
Hopefully anyone interested in this issue will see this notice and come to the meeting.
Barbara Murphy

[Chris Santee]

Thanks, Barbara.

[ohhman]

I am hoping that by those voicing  opinions of support on Monday night @ the school board meeting, our "super" REALLY heard us in support of keeping our buses here in Fairfax!!  I have a class tonight that I can't skip or I'd be there & voice again tonight in support of keeping our buses.  Barb, tell them LOUDLY for me that we NEED to keep our buses!!    I still don't get WHY, in the past at Town Meeting day, we have voted to support a schedule for replacing buses, but yet now, the "super" gets to make that decision to take them away!  Some things/positions are replaceable in life, our buses will never be one of them.

[Barbara]

I am putting this back at the top of the list because the meeting is in an hour. 
Seriously, this is your chance to give input into an important decision for our school.

It is not an easy decision.  We do have to step up to the plate and fund new buses if we are for having our own fleet.
Purchases have been put off, so now we are looking at a bus a year for five years.
But, the cost for contracting this service out has to include the same replacement cost for the provider.
I don't believe there is any financial savings in the long run for our school.
It is the responsibility of the school board to make sure they are being fiscally responsible, so I appreciate their request for bids.
I just don't want Fairfax to be pushed into a contract that is really only beneficial to those schools in the district that already contract this service out.


Please come out tonight if you can.

[slpott]

I went and voiced my opinion to keep the buses and as it stand now, they will keep the decision on a local level and vote on December 12th at 6:30. PLEASE come and help keep our buses. It is such an important vote for not only the kids but the community. Hope to see you there. Shelly

[Rev. Elizabeth]

Thanks, Shelly!

[Sue W.]

I hoped they listened to your community and kept control of your buses local.  It has not been a great experience in Georgia. 

[Dick Brown]

As a former School District employee , I usually admired past and present School Board members for their continuing concern for the townspeople , parents and children they displayed when making decisions . Once again , Barbara , your verbal urging yesterday to this forum's readers to be part of this decision was done with the best intention for Fairfax and I commend you for doing that .

[ohhman]

Barbara, again thankyou for posting this! Sue, it's good of you to let it be known it hasn't been such a great experience in Georgia as @ Monday's school board meeting someone said that both Georgia & Fletcher are contracted out & it works.  I didn't get to the meeting last night but have heard from one whom did & I was disappointed to see that there were 3 bus quotes that came in but unfortunately not much time (the morning of the meeting) was when some figures were put together on cost of our busing here- how fair was that?  At Monday night's meeting we were told to attend the Wed. pm supervisory meeting as then they would have the figures (bids) known as they had just been received & hadn't been looked over. We were also told that we could go to next board meeting to find out more on the bus issue as it'd be discussed again.  Funny NO mention was stated that it was to be VOTED on the Wed. pm supervisory meeting night!  Back up a bit & at the FFRED meetings I attended & the bus question/concern came up, we were told it was all in early stages & they were only asking quotes as recommended by the state to do so but there was nothing mandating we had to go with contracted busing.  Apparently last night when a public comment asked when this was decided the response was it's been in the works awhile? months?  How can we not know about this?! I will say on occasion I have been told to attend the board meetings & keep informed; at the meetings I have gone to I will say, my opinion, it is very hard to HEAR what the board & school administrators,superintendent's office is saying; SPEAK UP PLEASE!!  I also have to say, if something is on the agenda for a meeting, such as the bus issue or also about the para ed salary, then people should be equipped with necessary information to answer questions about the topics: for instance, the business manager needs to have figures with her so it's known how much something is or what it means dollar wise. Monday night school board meeting, the printed agenda for the public to see stated there was a surplus of 193k; however, asked last night & apparently it's not known if there will be a surplus. hmmmmm! If I were a business manager, with all the negativeness of embezzlement happening in Vt & all over, I'd want to have EVERYTHING I needed to show if needed. Not saying she is guilty of anything except not being prepared & if that is part of the job, it needs to be ready & available at the meeting when it's up for discussion. Back to the bus issue, I hope our board listens to the people that voted for them to do a service for our school; please listen to what the people are saying; listen to common sense. How accurate is the figure, moreover what is it as it was not put on the bus bid sheet given out to the handful of people that attended, are there things considered as far as the extras the bus mechanics do: service our lawn mowers, school truck, weld things that get broken @ school?  And when you are figuring out how much the contracted bus service will cost, please remember we have kids on IEP plans & they may get transported to & from school different times than the "normal"school hours are so you may be paying a minimum of 4 hrs @ $20.per hr PLUS mileage to take that student 15min from school.  PLEASE do the math! These contracted services are in the business to make a profit; our bus system now is there to do the service without the profit. I think the school board & everyone needs to remember, we the tax payers vote you in to do the right thing for our school, in the best interest of all. You the school board hires the superintendent; he should make the best decision for the school also & be answering to you, the board; sitting in the public audience a few times I just don't get that feeling.  OK, this is MY opinion & I am thankful to be allowed to voice it;    the figures are from handouts gives at the 2 meetings that have been mentioned.  So PLEASE, all who read this, GET THE WORD OUT TO ATTEND THE MEETING ON DEC.12 & VOICE YOUR OPINION!!!!

[Chris Santee]

Bids from three companies were on the list distributed at the meeting.

First Student $818,529 + $40 per hour for Co-Curricular & Field Trips + $50 per Vocational run.
2.5% increase in years 2 and 3
(based on leasing Fairfax Fleet/Garage @ $1 per year)

Grand Avenue & Terrical Transit
$682,000 + $16.50-$17 per hour for Co-Curricular & Field Trips and $1.65 per mile + $17 per hour and $1.65 per mile for vocational.
2.58% increase in years 2 and 3.

Student Transfer of Vermont $705,344 + $20 per hour and $1.50 per mile for Co-Curricular. Vocational is included.
3% increase in years 2 and 3.

BFA's current cost and more info coming as quicly as I can.............

If anyone is interested in my opinion, I want the buses to remain as they are.

[ohhman]

There is a petition in the grocery stores in town in support of KEEPING our buses!  Please take a minute to sign this & show your support.
Chris, thanks for the $$ info  & I hope everyone realizes they can put anything down on paper to make it sound better; just remember, these quotes will increase without a doubt, the cost of everything goes up,but once one signs on, you  pay no matter what the charge!  KEEP our buses!!!  Remember the board meeting is Dec., 12th;  show your support & attend please.

[BFA Principal Clark]

Del and I prepared and sent the following information for the BFA Fairfax school board on November 15.  It is part of my board report for this month but I thought it would be helpful for this forum to see mine and Del’s assessment and recommendations.  There are a couple of things to consider when looking at this information:

1.   The Student Transfer of Vermont bid may have saved FWSU more however because of the way we have tracked co-curricular and fieldtrips in the past there was not a great way for us to compare with certainty.
2.   We need to do work to make sure that we follow the proper procedures to put an article forward and will look into this if we decide to go forward with this idea.
3.   Barbara is absolutely correct when she points out that we will need to be purchasing a bus regularly for the foreseeable future.  New buses will cost between $80,000-$100,000+.  Del and transportation staff have done a nice job maintaining what we have and I was able to secure a grant two years ago that allowed us to trade in 2 buses, each with over 180,000 miles on them for a used bus with about 100,000 miles on it and a brand new bus at a cost of just over $40,000; We don’t expect another opportunity like that to come along.

I hope this helps the community to know what Del and I are thinking and I appreciate the constructive feedback members of the community have shared with us.

November 15, 2011 Letter

Dear Board Members

I reviewed the bus bids with Chris Sumner and Del Sweatt today and have attached the summary to this letter. 

FY 2013
The bid that Del and I compared to our current bus budget to was the Grand Avenue and Terrical Transit bid.  Our portion of the bid was $280,000 + $65,000 in fuel + $62,000 (estimated) in Co-curricular + $60,000 (estimated) for vocational runs.  This is a total of 467,000 which is approximately $54,000 more than what we have budgeted for FY 2013.
*This bid also includes a provision for negotiating the purchase of the Fairfax Bus fleet if awarded this contract.(As Del and I discussed this we felt that the buses in our fleet would sell for between $50,000-$75,000.  We could research this more completely if you would like us to.)

FY2014
The bid calls for a 2.58% increase in year two making the year two bid cost approximately $479,000.  If we choose to keep our own fleet we will need to purchase a bus in FY 2014 with an expected cost of $100,000.  Assuming a 0% increase in the transportation budget plus $100,000 we would need to budget $513,123.  In year two the bid, I project the bus bid would save approximately $34,000.

FY 2015
The bid calls for a 2.58% increase in year three, making the year three bid cost approximately $491,000.  If we choose to keep our own fleet we will need to purchase a bus again in FY 2015 with an expected cost of $100,000+.  Assuming a 2% increase in the transportation budget plus $100,000 we would need to budget $521,385.  In year three of the bus bid I project the bus bid would save approximately $30,000.

Additionally our bus replacement cycle calls for replacing a bus in FY 2016, FY2017, FY2019, FY2020, and FY 2021.

Recommendation:
I believe the town of Fairfax wants to continue to own its fleet of buses.  A savings of approximately $10,000 coupled with $50,000 - $75,000 of revenue generated by selling our fleet  represents $60,000 - $85,000 over three years and is significant, however I do not believe the town will support it.  Additionally an increase of the transportation budget of $100,000 to purchase a bus each year, for four out of the next five years represents a substantial burden on the educational budget of the school (nearly 1%).  For these reasons I propose that we maintain our fleet and that we offer the community a separate, 5 year, article at the 2012 Town Meeting Day that calls for the community to fund the purchase of a bus in FY 2014, FY 2015, FY 2016, and FY 2017.  If the community voted down the article it would be a signal that the community does not want to own its own fleet and we should accept the bid.

Sincerely,



Michael J. Clark                  Wendell L. Sweatt Jr.
Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax               Transportation Supervisor
Principal

[BFA Principal Clark]

Sorry I left off one more important piece of information:

bullet 4 would have been Terrical came out and looked at the buses; they were only interested in the two newer buses and would put their value at $70,000 for the pair.

[cvallett]

I haven't followed this situation at all, however, as a voter it would be very helpful to see more information.  The bid prices are quite clear as is the cost of bus purchases, but what about the current operating costs?  What does it cost for personnel (salaries and fringe benefits included), repairs, the bus garage, fuel, insurance etc.  as well as the annual depreciation on the current buses and all other overhead costs.  A spreadsheet with these numbers side by side with the bids would be helpful in rational decision making.  If this information exists somewhere and is easily retrievable, please let me know.
Thanks!

[Mummy]

Well, well, well .... if the Selectboard and the Principal are in support of keeping the Buses local, WHY then is it being discussed?  This makes me really wonder .... anyone else wondering?