Owning, outsourcing busing offer different advantages for schools

CEDAR RAPIDS — On the second-to-last day of the school year this past week in Cedar Rapids, Mitch Mensen oversaw work on three buses in the school district's maintenance shop.

Mensen, who has worked here for 15 years, is the shop's second-generation chief auto mechanic — his father held the position before him.

One bus was getting a brake adjustment and a replacement side mirror. The senior mechanic who worked on it, Zach Rogers, has been a district employee for 10 years.

That kind of longevity and history can mean transportation employees are more connected to the district, said Denny Schreckengast, the district's transportation manager. That's one reason the Cedar Rapids Community School District owns, operates and maintains its own school buses, he said.

In the case of some bus drivers, 'their kids are now coming in and working here,' Schreckengast said, standing in the maintenance shop on Thursday. 'So I know what I'm getting in terms of employees.'

Privatizing student transportation by contracting with an outside company, such as Warrenville, Ill.-based Durham School Services or First Student of Cincinnati, can save districts money, those companies say. And 14 mostly mid-sized to large districts statewide, including Iowa City, do so.

But for the vast majority of Iowa school districts, which provide transportation in-house, geography and employee relationships — coupled with the sheer cost of buying a new fleet of buses if contracting doesn't work out — can factor in.

Operating Costs

For a district such as Cedar Rapids, transporting students to and from school involves more than just the cost of gas.

The district owns 116 buses, Schreckengast said, including eight to 10 spares in case of mechanical problems.

It usually buys seven new buses each school year, at cost of $85,000 to $95,000 each, he said, and he hopes to increase that to nine or 10 new buses next school year.

And Cedar Rapids buses are operated by about 190 drivers and monitors, Schreckengast said.

That added up to a net operating cost of about $4.3 million for the 2013-14 school year, according to data from the Iowa Department of Education.

Companies such as Durham sell districts on their ability to lower those costs. Durham typically can save a district 10 to 20 percent of its costs, freeing resources for the classroom, said Rick Klaus, the company's vice president of business development.

'It allows them to focus on their core mission of education,' Klaus said. 'Any focus that they take away from educating students detracts from educating students.'

That's the case in the Iowa City Community School District, which contracts with Durham, Superintendent Stephen Murley said.

'We tend to focus on things that we consider part of the core of a school district, which is the teaching and learning piece,' Murley said.

Durham also offers expertise in maintaining buses and determining routes that districts aren't able to, Klaus said.

'If something happens, we've seen it before and we know how to fix it,' he said.

But other districts' administrators are wary of contracting their transportation, saying even if they wanted to try it, they wouldn't be able to go back.

'Once you move to contracting out those services, then you're pretty much locked into that,' said Superintendent Sarah Pinion of the Marion Independent School District, which owns its own buses. 'Because that would become a very large capital outlay to purchase enough buses to restock your fleet.'

Districts have options, Klaus said — they can continue to own and buy new buses, even while contracting with Durham for drivers and other personnel.

Outsourcing transportation can look good at first, Pinion said. But price increases can make it not beneficial later on.

'You're kind of at the mercy of whoever you contract with,' she said.

Geography and Size

Durham's business model can work best for districts in a 'sweet spot' of medium to large size, Klaus said.

'It's really hard to bring our business model of expertise and savings if you're in a rural district that may only have five or 10 buses, which is a lot of school districts in Iowa,' he said. 'There are fewer efficiencies to go find, there's less need of management and expertise, and so the economics of our business model aren't as efficient.'

Some rural districts might not even have the option of contracting, Klaus added, because Durham or a similar company might not have a location nearby.

Other, non-public schools — including the Catholic schools in Cedar Rapids — share busing with the closest public school district.

At Xavier High School, students are transported to and from school by Cedar Rapids buses if they live in that district, Principal Tom Keating said. If students live in the Linn-Mar, Marion or College Community districts, those districts reimburse their families for transportation costs.

Keating said the broad geographic area from which Xavier students come would make providing its own busing hard for the school.

'It would probably be cost-prohibitive for us,' he said.

Personal Connections

Managing transportation in-house means Cedar Rapids drivers and other transportation workers are more connected to the district's students and schools, Schreckengast said.

'My wife teaches, and that whole idea of being a district employee for Cedar Rapids is important to us,' he said.

Schreckengast has children in the district, he said, and retired teachers and other staff from Cedar Rapids schools often become bus drivers here.

In the College Community district, one driver and retired teacher has been a district employee for more than 35 years, Transportation Director Scott Grabe said.

'He was my teacher when I was in school, and I'm 54 years old,' Grabe said.

Even for bus drivers who have no previous connection to College Community schools, Grabe said, working for the district matters.

'They come in and they're a bus driver, and all of a sudden they're owning Prairie gear,' he said.

The name on the side of the bus also makes a difference, Schreckengast said.

'The identity, when the bus goes down the road and it says Cedar Rapids, to me makes mores sense,' he said.

Numbers of vehicles used by some Corridor school districts

• Cedar Rapids Community School District — 116 buses, 91 other vehicles

• College Community School District — 50 large buses, 8 buses with wheelchair lifts, 18 vans

• Linn-Mar Community School District — 57 buses, 10 vans

• Marion Independent School District — 13 buses, 8 other vehicles

Source: School district officials and transportation personnel