By SHANNON CAULFIELD
The Marlton Sun
The Evesham Township school board will be looking for bids to purchase new buses or bus contracting services.
The cost of contracting a bus service for will be $2.1 million over four years.
Currently, the board is spending $3.8 million on the services, including insurance, fuel and salaries.
According to school board president Sandy Student, school buses must be retired and taken off the road after 15 years.
Hillman is currently contracted for 30 percent of the bus routes in the district. According to Student, districts need to rebid contracts.
“We are looking for options, option A is to buy new buses. Option B would be able to contract it out. I won’t know until we get the information,” Student said. “If we don’t look to save money we’re not being responsible.”
Students, parents and bus drivers raised concerns that the move could lead to more privatization of the bus routes.
Parents and students spoke of the kindness of the school district’s bus drivers’ personal relationships with the students, from asking about their day at school; to making sure they’re inside their homes safely; to protecting them from bullies.
Parents found it alarming the district would privatize the bus service, citing “nightmarish” situations involving speeding, forgetting children on the bus and habitual lateness.
“We’ve had a Hillman bus driver for the past few months, and it’s been an absolute nightmare,” said parent Melissa Harrison. “We’ve had bus drivers consistently yell at our kids. They have said ‘shut up’ to my daughter, something we don’t even say to her because to her it’s a bad word.”
She lamented the drivers go in circles and are often lost. Additionally, multiple children got off at the wrong stop and the driver arrived up to 25 minutes late.
The board stated it has sent multiple complaints to the company and will follow up with the complaints.
The board will be moving forward with the bidding process.
In other news: a moment of silence was held for the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Additionally, superintendent John Scavelli did a walk-through during a lockdown drill.
“You could hear a pin drop,” said Scavelli. “They did a great job, you couldn’t even tell anyone was in the school.”
Scavelli mentioned the ability to lock classroom doors was an issue the district is looking to rectify.
Currently, teachers are only able to lock doors from the outside, which presents a problem if an emergency were to occur.
