School Board Awards Transportation Contract

To MTM

By Eliza Hallabeck

Before a large crowd in the Newtown High School auditorium May 19, the Board of Education voted 4-2 to award the special needs and private school transportation in the district to MTM Transportation, a local fleet operator.

After three deadlocked meetings, Tuesday’s special meeting was the fifth meeting the school board discussed the transportation contract.

“Given that this is our fifth meeting to discuss busing,” Board of Education Chair Elaine McClure said at the start of the meeting, “changing how we do things seems like a good idea.”

She had school board members, and herself, speak first, then opened the meeting for public participation. Despite asking all public speakers to keep their comments short, that portion of the meeting lasted almost an hour.

Before public participation, Ms McClure said after the school board’s last meeting, on Tuesday, May 5, when the board ended the night around midnight still in a deadlock over the bus contract, she called the different members of the board and asked if they had any questions for Torrington based All-Star Transportation or for the owners of MTM. She said she then spoke to the school district’s Business Director Ronald Bienkowski and, “he tells me that at this point the money is equal whether we choose All-Star or MTM.”

Of the five proposals that came back in February when school board sent out its request for proposals, All-Star Transportation and MTM Transportation came back with the lowest bids. An outside consultant and Mr Bienkowski both recommended the school board opt to split the award of the contract, because All-Star bid the lowest price for the largest portion of the contract and MTM bid the lowest price for the other three portions.

All-Star’s original full bid for the five-year contract was $10,990,465, and MTM’s original full bid for the same term was $10,623,786. After All-Star and MTM submitted new lower numbers to the school board for the board’s April 30 meeting, MTM, which had submitted a bottom line of $10,214,048 for the five-year contract, said it would match All-Star’s bid of $10,115,000.

Board member David Nanavaty said he has received a “great deal of emails, and many of them have been personal.”

“I think part of doing this job, and being a volunteer in this town, is you care about this town and you care about the people in this town,” he said. “But in sitting as a member on this board, I have to do what is best for the Board of Education.”

Mr Nanavaty said he contacted Mr Bienkowski, and, using numbers supplied by Mr Bienkowski, Mr Nanavaty said if the owner/operators, the individually contracted drivers responsible for the public school portion of transportation in the district, elected to enter into the same contract proposed by All-Star, it would save the district $500,000. He asked to break the meeting for 15 minutes to give the owner/operators present a chance to deliberate the proposal, suggesting that if they agreed to such a plan to lower the daily rate for transporting students, he would favor extending the owner/operator contract from three to five years.

“I’d like to put it back in their hands,” Mr Nanavaty said, “because I question whether their motives are so pure.”

After asking the public to be respectful and remember each member of the school board is a volunteer, board member Kathy Fetchick said their were more issues to discuss than daily rates.

The school board did not authorize a break in the meeting to accommodate Mr Nanavaty’s proposal.

Ms McClure said no matter the outcome of the meeting, having the school board locked in their decision had caused lowest bids for the contract to go down.

“This is a win-win for Newtown,” said Ms McClure.

During public participation, Harvey Hubble IV, currently a Florida resident but a property owner in Newtown for 50 years, said, “Our local drivers know how to get around a problem.”

Sara Frampton said when teaching her second grade students she tells them to “think globally, stay locally.”

Selectman Herb Rosenthal urged the school board to award the contract to MTM, and Selectman Paul Mangiafico told the board they had to reach a decision.

“You have to reach a decision on the facts and what is best for the town,” said Mr Mangiafico.

Board of Finance Vice Chair Jim Gaston said as a trial attorney, people would be surprised at who is driving school buses throughout the state and nation. “There’s a difference between what is out there,” he said, “and what we have here in Newtown, and in Newtown we do not have that problem.”

After public participation, board member Anna Wiedemann moved for the contract to be awarded to MTM Transportation; board member Kathy Fetchick seconded the motion.

“I have looked at this issue up and down,” said Ms Fetchick, adding she feels completely satisfied that MTM could satisfy the transportation contract.

“MTM is about serving Newtown,” Ms Fetchick continued. “They do not have dreams to become the biggest bus company in the state. Their goal is to serve Newtown.”

During the vote board member Richard Gaines reversed what had been his vote during the deadlock, and voted for MTM after mentioning concerns about MTM’s response to the school board’s request for proposals.

Ms Fetchick, Ms McClure, Ms Wiedemann, and Mr Gaines voted in favor of awarding the contract to MTM over giving it to All-Star Transportation. Board members David Nanavaty and Kathleen Chrystie voted against the motion.

“I am hopeful that the winner of this contract will satisfy the needs of the town, of the children and of the district. And I vote for MTM,” said Mr Gaines to applause from the members of the public in attendance.