School Bus Contractors

A cost-saving switch in the way the Howard County school system awards bus contracts has angered local contractors, who warn that the change will drive many of them out of business within 10 years.The decision to require bus contractors to bid for individual routes -- rather than to continue paying them by a prearranged cost formula -- eventually could save the schools more than $1 million a year, said Glenn Johnson, the school system's pupil transportation director. The county schools are spending almost $12 million this year on transporting students.

Because Baltimore City has long struggled to correct the problems of its chronically underperforming school system, Maryland has for decades funded education in the city at a higher level than other jurisdictions. That is why a preliminary audit report detailing evidence of waste, fraud and abuse in the system represents a potentially devastating indictment of the city's school reform effort. If allegations of mismanagement, lax oversight and incompetence lead lawmakers in Annapolis to question the city's use of the public funds it receives, support for school reform here could dry up overnight.

School bus contractors are upset that the Board of Education has given itself the option to reduce their pay next year.Last week's unanimous decision allows the board to reduce contractors' rate of reimbursement if the school system finds itself in a budget crunch. Starting next year, contractors will have to sign an agreement with a provision that allows the board such power.Contractors called the decision unfair."This is the only business that these contractors have," said Thomas M. Meachum, lawyer for the School Bus Contractors Association.

T. NEVILLECUNNINGHAM, life member of the Aberdeen Fire Department and charter member of the Harford County school Bus Contractors Association, died at his home on May 13. He was 92. Mr. Cunningham, known as Nev by all who knew him, was born on the Medical Hall Farm in Harford County on May 1, 1913. He was the son of the late Wilbur Edwin and Annie Mc Alee Cunningham. He lived in Harford County most of his life, the past 65 years at his residence in Aberdeen. A man of great faith, Mr. Cunningham joined the Episcopal Church early in life.

The Howard County school system today will accept bids for kindergarten bus routes for next school year after a Howard County Circuit Court judge yesterday rejected an attempt by local school bus contractors to halt the process.Judge James B. Dudley refused to grant the bus contractors an immediate injunction to stop the bidding for the 50 routes, on which half-day morning kindergarten students travel home and afternoon kindergarten students go to school.A request for a permanent injunction to stop the process is pending.

Carroll school bus contractors last night asked county school officials for an increase in their payment formula, which has remained unchanged for three years.Paul D. Rill of Rill Bus Service in Westminster and seven other contractors made the request at the school staff's first budget hearing last night at South Carroll High School.The $118 million budget proposal for the 1993-1994 school year represents a 6.4 percent increase over the current year's budget, counting mid- year cuts that were made last month.

Saying they've been "nit-picked" by state inspectors, several of Baltimore's school bus contractors insisted to motor vehicle officials yesterday that city buses are not as problem-filled as inspection records show, and that clearer guidelines are needed. Yesterday's meeting at a city schools office building in Northeast Baltimore occurred amid growing concerns that many city bus contractors are driving potentially unsafe buses. A recent review of state safety records by The Sun showed that city buses are more than twice as likely to have major defects as buses in area counties.

A group of Anne Arundel County school bus contractors has failed to persuade a judge to block the start of competitive bidding for regular bus routes, but Friday's courthouse confrontation may be the start of a war over transporting children to school.Lawyers for the drivers vowed to return to court Feb. 12 for a second try at an injunction, this to block the school board from awarding the contracts after it opens the bids.The board could award the contracts for the coming school year as early as Feb. 18.Around the state, school transportation systems are in tremendous flux, as local school boards look to hold down costs, provide more service and meet new safety and other regulations, said Winship Wheatley III, Anne Arundel's transportation director.

WESTMINSTER -- School bus contractors, drivers and other members of Carroll's pupil transportation personnel department were at Cranberry Mall Saturday for the Transportation Fair.Bus drivers demonstrated flashing warning lights and the crossing control arm.In addition, Buster the Bus -- a robotic bus given to the Carroll school system by the Maryland Department of Education -- meandered through the parking lot and mall answering questions about bus safety.Children received handouts and coloring books.

The former bookkeeper for the Harford County 4-H Fair and the county's School Bus Contractors Association has been arrested and charged with stealing funds from both organizations, the state's attorney's office said yesterday.Debra C. Nelson, 40, of the 500 block of Chestnut Hill Road in Forest Hill was arrested Wednesday morning on two counts of theft of more than $300, said Sgt. Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Department.She was released on $1,000 bail, police said.

Before dawn yesterday, Linthicum bus contractor Robert Zimmerman was in his Chevrolet pickup, shoving snow with his truck's plow blade to free some of the 30 school buses buried on his lot. "This snow lets me know I'm getting old," Zimmerman, 44, said later in the morning as he rammed his truck over and over into a snowdrift that had trapped a bus. "When I was young, this was fun." School bus contractors across Maryland are in the same predicament, working to get buses ready for when schools reopen.

Saying they've been "nit-picked" by state inspectors, several of Baltimore's school bus contractors insisted to motor vehicle officials yesterday that city buses are not as problem-filled as inspection records show, and that clearer guidelines are needed. Yesterday's meeting at a city schools office building in Northeast Baltimore occurred amid growing concerns that many city bus contractors are driving potentially unsafe buses. A recent review of state safety records by The Sun showed that city buses are more than twice as likely to have major defects as buses in area counties.

A group of Anne Arundel County school bus contractors has failed to persuade a judge to block the start of competitive bidding for regular bus routes, but Friday's courthouse confrontation may be the start of a war over transporting children to school.Lawyers for the drivers vowed to return to court Feb. 12 for a second try at an injunction, this to block the school board from awarding the contracts after it opens the bids.The board could award the contracts for the coming school year as early as Feb. 18.Around the state, school transportation systems are in tremendous flux, as local school boards look to hold down costs, provide more service and meet new safety and other regulations, said Winship Wheatley III, Anne Arundel's transportation director.

A pattern of mismanagement and nearly nonexistent oversight by Baltimore's public schools has allowed bus contractors to overcharge the city thousands of dollars for transportation of special education children, according to a city audit report.The report showed that the school system overpaid by more than $133,000 during the 1995-1996 year. But the amount overpaid was likely much more, since the audit covered less than half of the bus contracts."There is a potential for additional amounts," said Beverly L. Everson-Jones, an auditor in the city comptroller's office.

The former bookkeeper for the Harford County 4-H Fair and the county's School Bus Contractors Association has been arrested and charged with stealing funds from both organizations, the state's attorney's office said yesterday.Debra C. Nelson, 40, of the 500 block of Chestnut Hill Road in Forest Hill was arrested Wednesday morning on two counts of theft of more than $300, said Sgt. Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Department.She was released on $1,000 bail, police said.

The Howard County school system today will accept bids for kindergarten bus routes for next school year after a Howard County Circuit Court judge yesterday rejected an attempt by local school bus contractors to halt the process.Judge James B. Dudley refused to grant the bus contractors an immediate injunction to stop the bidding for the 50 routes, on which half-day morning kindergarten students travel home and afternoon kindergarten students go to school.A request for a permanent injunction to stop the process is pending.

The Howard County School Board delayed action last night on an advisory committee that would have given bus contractors a forum for theirideas on student transportation -- but would not have been the appeals panel the contractors wanted for resolving disputes with the school system.The board postponed its vote to allow the lawyer for theschool bus contractors, board attorneys and school officials an opportunity to discuss several issues, including the role of the private contractors in resolving disciplinary issues involving their drivers.

School bus contractors argued unsuccessfully last week that the county school system doesn't need to buy a bus to train drivers and special education assistants.The school board overrode the contractors' contention that the existing arrangement, in which the school system leases a bus from a local contractor at $3,200 a year, is satisfactory.Board members voted June 13 to buy a new 64-passenger bus for $41,700, after transportation officials said they needed one with a liftgate to train special education drivers and assistants to transport students in wheelchairs.

A cost-saving switch in the way the Howard County school system awards bus contracts has angered local contractors, who warn that the change will drive many of them out of business within 10 years.The decision to require bus contractors to bid for individual routes -- rather than to continue paying them by a prearranged cost formula -- eventually could save the schools more than $1 million a year, said Glenn Johnson, the school system's pupil transportation director. The county schools are spending almost $12 million this year on transporting students.

Carroll school bus contractors last night asked county school officials for an increase in their payment formula, which has remained unchanged for three years.Paul D. Rill of Rill Bus Service in Westminster and seven other contractors made the request at the school staff's first budget hearing last night at South Carroll High School.The $118 million budget proposal for the 1993-1994 school year represents a 6.4 percent increase over the current year's budget, counting mid- year cuts that were made last month.