93 bus drivers, aides and mechanics to lose jobs as board hires private firm
By Zak Koeske
Ninety-three bus drivers, aides and mechanics in the Penn Hills School District will be out of a job at the end of the school year.
The school board voted 6-2 last Thursday to outsource its busing services to First Student Inc. of Cincinnati to save money. First Student contracts with a number of school districts in the area, including Woodland Hills and Gateway.
The outsourcing is expected to save the district $3.3 million the first year and between $1.4 million and $1.7 million each year after that for the remainder of the five-year contract, according to Richard Liberto, district director of business affairs. The first-year savings includes the sale of the district's 80-bus fleet to First Student for a minimum of $940,000.
In total, the district's transportation cost will run about $3.6 million next year. Had the district kept transportation in-house, rising pension payments would have brought the cost to more than $6 million, he said.
Mr. Liberto said the district will not have to worry about costs escalating out of control over the life of the contract because the price of diesel fuel will be locked in at $2 per gallon and the amount paid to First Student will increase at 2.5 percent each year.
Before the board voted to outsource transportation, the district faced a $3.9 million budget deficit for next fiscal year. The outsourcing leaves it with a $1.2 million budget surplus, according to the district.
The district sent a letter to its transit workers in November to tell them it was considering outsourcing transportation services when the workers' contract expires June 30.
Mr. Liberto said the district's attorney contacted the union's attorney one final time May 10.
"We reached an impasse," he said. "We were at an impasse with health care. An impasse with salaries. We had no way to fund buying new buses."
The transit union's proposal would have saved the district about $200,000 and involved the workers paying for 25 to 30 percent of their health insurance and taking wage freezes or reductions.
"We had nothing else to give up," said Gary Krapf, a Penn Hills bus driver for 25 years.
The district hoped that First Student would hire many of the Penn Hills drivers, Mr. Liberto said. Transit union president Lori Krapf said moving to First Student would require drivers to take a 30 percent pay cut and sacrifice health care, sick days and seniority.
After the vote, Mrs. Krapf said she was crushed.
"I'm sad that I couldn't save people's jobs," she said, fighting back tears. A few days later, Mrs. Krapf added that she also was angry and questioned why no other group of workers was eliminated.
Mr. Liberto said he believed the bus drivers had received fair treatment but added, "Transportation is an expensive department to run when you talk about the price of fuel, the price of buses, the price of parts today. There's a lot of overhead in the department.
"If a bus driving down the road right now breaks down, I'm on the hook to pay that bill. Whereas, if it breaks down with First Student -- and the transmission or engine goes -- my cost doesn't go up. My cost stays the same."
Board President Carl Barbarino said the issue was a choice between keeping teachers or keeping drivers.
"We're here to educate our kids, and we cannot afford to lay off 56 teachers, increase class sizes to 30, 35 kids to a class," he said. "So it's a give and take area. And unfortunately we had to take this stance."
Board members Joseph Bailey and Robert Hudak cast the two dissenting votes on the outsourcing.
Bus drivers will be expected to work for the remainder of the school year, and they have been offered monetary incentives by the district to hold on to their accumulated sick days rather than take days off.
So far, Mr. Liberto said the district has not had any problems with bus drivers calling off. He characterized the relationship between the two parties as "cordial."