For some people in Colorado Springs think that outsourcing school buses will help them to save more money. The Falcon School District 49 is forced and planned to save more money and they are looking toward to their transportation services as their main solution for their growing problem. The Falcon School District 49 is not the first district to plan and make a decision about cutting school bus costs and expenses. The school district that is currently outsourcing their buses is the Woodland Park School District RE-2 and the result of this decision has to make an implementation to put an additional fees for the students. They really have to pay this fee in order to use the school buses. And as of now Pueblo District 70 began their plan regarding outsourcing their school buses at the start of the school year. The district has a partnership with a private bus company First Student. Superintendent Ed Smith said First Student’s dedication to safety has been an important factor in making those decisions together with their ability in order to lower costs and expenses is one of the reasons that affect and influence their decision making. Smith said that the district will save almost $300,000 due to outsourcing. The National School of Transportation Association has done a study which stated that outsourcing can save all the companies, businesses and the districts about a number of 10 percent of their operating costs. Glenn Gustafson, deputy superintendent and chief financial officer of District 11, that last year they have planned to outsourced but suddenly they are not able to pursue it. The school District 11 has a plan to outsource and it became their option but they just decided not to pursue it because of some problem that occur on that time. District 11’s concerns with outsourcing included compromising employee benefits and pension benefits for the bus drivers. Colorado school districts promised the students to provide a safety measure because they are legally authorised to provide bus service for the special education students.
Reference
http://www.krdo.com/news/26487884/detail.html
