Against Binienda's advice, Worcester School Committee splits with bus service, will run its own

WORCESTER — Going against the superintendent’s advice, the School Committee on Thursday voted to cut ties with longtime busing provider Durham School Services next year.

The district will operate its own busing service after that point, joining a small list of school systems in the state that don’t contract with a vendor.

The vote also means Worcester will decline an optional third year with Durham that could have kicked in after the company’s current two-year contract ends next year. 

The 6-1 decision Thursday night, for which committee member John Monfredo cast the lone opposing vote, comes after years of planning for a possible switch to district-run busing, including a major internal report in 2019 that projected Worcester would save millions of dollars taking over transportation.

The last few years have also seen Durham absorb consistent criticism of its performance from committee members, one of whom, Molly McCullough, said Thursday night, transportation issues are the number one complaint she hears from parents.

Earlier this year, for instance, the committee sent a breach of contract letter to the company over a driver shortage that occurred immediately before the district’s transition from remote to in-person education this spring. 

“We haven’t been given a good reason not to move to an in-house busing service," said committee chairman Mayor Joseph Petty, who like some other committee members in favor of the move, pointed out Worcester already runs a portion of its current transportation service. “We have experience — we have mechanics, we have the infrastructure in place … it’s nothing new.”

But Superintendent Maureen Binienda recommended Worcester not take on busing entirely on its own, and continued to defend Durham’s track record of collaborating with the district.

“When there’s a problem, we work together to solve it,” she said.

Binienda also warned the district will face the same kind of challenges, chiefly a national driver shortage, currently plaguing Durham, which is currently 19 drivers short for the new school year starting next week. 

“What’s so special about the Worcester Public Schools that people are going to leave to come?” She said, adding the school system will not be able to offer the financial incentives that private contractors are able to. 

Binienda’s stance was backed on the committee by Monfredo, who said Worcester’s switch to self-run busing is the “wrong move.”

“Why is this body willing to act independently and not listen to administration?,” he said, adding he also opposed the committee’s move to dedicate a portion of the pandemic federal funding Worcester is getting to buying buses.

“What about tutors, summer school, bringing back the reading program … a full-day preschool program across the district?”

In the audience for Thursday night’s meeting, Durham Vice President of Operations Steve Schmuck urged the committee to at least sign on for the optional third year of its current contract with the company. He also said “there’s a reason” so few districts in the state run their own busing, and that Durham is working “diligently” to solve its current driver shortage.

Jennifer O’Connor, a driver for the company, put it bluntly that many drivers are receiving the committee’s move as “they don’t need us, we don’t need them, we don’t need you,” and that they could find employment elsewhere rather than work for the district, which plans to prioritize hiring former Durham employees. She also blamed the district’s route scheduling, which Durham does not do, for some of the schools’ transportation issues. 

On the committee, however, most members agreed Durham has been given enough time to solve the district’s busing problems, with insufficient results.

Committee member Diana Biancheria, who in the past opposed Worcester’s move to in-house busing, said she is now onboard with the step, albeit in a “little cautious” way, in part because of the district’s good position now to have the infrastructure needed to run its own service, including a possible headquarters at the former Allegro plant on Northeast Cutoff.

“The administration already sets themselves up for this,” she said.

Committee member Tracy O’Connell Novick, meanwhile, who has been one of the most vocal critics of Durham on the committee, said, “continuing this way (with Durham) is disrespectful to everyone,” including the drivers, who receive the brunt of parents’ anger about busing problems when they can’t reach the company itself.

She and other members in favor of going in-house with transportation said it would not only save money, but would open up several other opportunists, from changing start times at the high schools to reconfiguring walking zones in the city. 

“We should really be dreaming a little here,” she said, with the chance to not have to deal with a third-party vendor anymore.

She also countered the idea, put forth by Monfredo, that busing isn’t a good investment of the district’s time and money compared to more classroom-focused needs: “the number of student hours we have missed” over the past few years due to late buses and related issues, she said, “is absolutely enormous.”

“We’re ready to do this,” said Petty, who added the move “isn’t about politics.”

“This is in the best interest of the students, I think,” he said.

The committee’s vote Thursday followed an initial 2-1 decision by its Finance and Operations Standing Committee last week to forgo the third year with Durham, move to in-house busing in 2022, and dedicate some of Worcester’s government pandemic funds to purchasing buses.