School board may oust Laidlaw
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Looks like there may be all brand new school buses sporting a different company name and rolling along the highways of Santa Rosa County come August.

Unless something unforeseen happens, the Santa Rosa County School Board will be approving a new contract today, Thursday, April 24 for a different transportation company to operate the school buses in the district for the next five years at least. That's according to Steve Ratliff, the district's assistant superintendent of administrative services. He said the transportation department will be presenting a recommendation to the school board to hire Durham School Services of Illinois, and a new contract with Durham has already been worked out to present to the board for approval at the same meeting.

Durham is slated to take over school bus transportation services for Santa Rosa County July 1, if approved by the school board as expected.

"This was the year we had to review our transportation options and contract, because the 10-year contract with Laidlaw/First Student expired at the end of this school year," Ratliff said. "So we put out a request for bids, and Durham and First Student were the only companies to respond. We formed a committee that took months to review both bids and travel to other districts who are using Durham."

Diane Coleman of Navarre was the school board member on that review committee. "We were concerned about making a change because of possible transition problems," Coleman said. "After all, we had been with Laidlaw (now First Student), for 10 years. So we wanted to thoroughly investigate the whole issue, and Durham, as much as we possibly could. And we kept thinking maybe we shouldn't change, but time and again everything kept coming back pointing to Durham offering the best package for our needs. And we needed to get the absolute most for our money with all the state cut backs right now."

Coleman said, "In the end, there wasn't that much difference between the final cost bids from First Student and Durham, but we are getting a lot more for the same money with Durham, like all brand new air conditioned buses with GPS systems already on board."Ratliff said the Durham offer included a lot of incentives, like brand new buses -- each equipped with GPS tracking systems, air conditioners, and digital cameras. "If we go with a two tier system next school year like we have now, we would need 257 buses and the Durham contract would be for about $8.1 million. If we switch to the three tier system, then we would need only 209 buses, and Durham gave us a cost of just over $7 million. It was just about the same as the First Student bid, but we are indeed getting more for the money with Durham." This school year's contract with First Student cost the Santa Rosa School District $10.5 million.

He said all the older districtowned buses now operating alongside the Laidlaw buses in the district would be pulled off the road to be used as back-up buses. Coleman pointed out, "Each year with Laidlaw we get 50 new buses to add to the fleet, but we have been adding air conditioning to the older buses at our own expense, over and above the contract. And of course when we signed the original contract with Laidlaw 10 years ago there was no such thing as GPS tracking, so we have been adding that at our own expense, also. Durham will have all buses air conditioned and provide this new equipment as part of their contract."

The review committee included Ratliff and Coleman, and the district's transportation director Joey Harrell, and administrator Judd Crane, who handles all contracts and purchasing for the district, as well as Bucky Stringfellow, who oversees maintenance and garage operations for the transportation department. There were also two school principals - Victor Lowrimore of Woodlawn Middle School and Karen Barber of Chumuckla Elementary. The committee traveled to other school districts who are using Durham to see what the buses looked like and get feedback from school bus drivers, parents and school board members.

"We tried to pick districts that were close to our size and operated a similar number of buses," Coleman said. "They let us go where we wanted to go and talk to anyone we wanted to talk to on the trips. No one at any of the districts kept us from talking to anyone. And all the feedback we got was very positive. Of course, no company is perfect, but we did hear everywhere we went, from Texas to Tennessee, that when a problem arises with Durham they

take care of it quickly. And all the drivers we talked to seemed happy with Durham."

The review committee visited the Chattanooga, Tenn. schools, which are part of the Hamilton County School District. Wayne Hendrix is Transportation Director for that district, and told Gulf Breeze News in a phone interview this week, "We had Laidlaw Transportation operating our school buses for five years. Last July 1 we switched to Durham, so we have had almost one full school year with Durham now. We have been very, very happy with the change. And very happy with the fleet of all brand new school buses we received. Durham has met all our expectations and more."

Hendrix said their new school bus fleet has cameras on each bus, and that has helped with student discipline. "You just can't imagine how students change their behavior when they know the camera is watching and they see exactly how much the camera can actually pick up," he laughed.

"The first thing Durham did when they came in here was raise our drivers' pay by $3 an hour, so our drivers were happy," Hendrix said. He said their drivers were making about $10 an hour under Laidlaw, and are now making about $13 an hour, but he did not know if they would do that everywhere. "We run a fleet of 250 buses, and only 26 of our drivers were not hired by Durham.

Santa Rosa School District bus drivers working for Laidlaw-First Student currently make $10.50 an hour. Coleman and Ratliff said they did not know what Durham would offer drivers per hour.

Hendrix said Durham only brought in a new bookkeeper, a new safety person, and a new general manager when they took over last summer - all the rest of the employees and managers for the bus system were offered jobs with Durham. "The real key, we have discovered, to the whole thing working well is to get a good general manager," Hendrix said.

School board member Coleman said the district will have the chance to pick the general manager. "Durham will send us three to interview, and if we think none of those three fit our district, then they will send us three more, until we find the general manager we think is the best fit for us," Coleman said.

Durham School Services started in 1917 with three school buses in California. They now operate 11,000 school buses in 27 states, and serve just over 300 school districts, according to the company website. They are headquartered in in Illinois.