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Nashua transportation costs driving budget increases

By ADAM URQUHART - Staff Writer | Feb 19, 2020

NASHUA – The School District’s proposed fiscal year 2021 budget shows an overall increase of more than $3 million from FY 2020, including a $422,067 spike for student transportation.

In fact, school officials plan to give nearly $2 million worth of pay raises to all employees in the new fiscal year, with the overall budget growing from $112 million to $115.2 million.

According to Director of Transportation David Rauseo, a nationwide bus driver shortage is a major contributor to the problem, as is having to transport certain students well beyond the city’s boundaries.

“It’s not just Nashua, it’s not just New England, it is national. Different parts of the country go as far as calling it severe or desperate. It’s been quite a challenge here locally,” Rauseo said during Thursday’s Board of Education Budget Committee meeting.

Currently, First Student is the district’s contractor for busing within the city, meaning special education and big school bus transportation to provide all in-district transportation. District leaders are now in the last year of their contract with First Student, and new contract negotiations are ongoing. However, Rauseo said there will soon be a request for proposals issued.

“First Student has just signed a contract with their drivers, and they’re going to be upwards of $25 an hour, and hopefully that’s going to get them to be able to recruit and retain and get rid of the shortage,” Rauseo said. “It absolutely does come with a cost though – and that’s sort of going to set the market.”

With the same training and certification, these school bus drivers can earn more in other professions that require a commercial driver’s license (CDL). A graphic included in Rauseo’s presentation shows data of the mean hourly wages of select professions requiring a CDL in 2018 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This graphic shows school bus drivers at $16.05 per hour, whereas transit bus drivers earned $21.47 per hour, followed by heavy truck drivers at $21.91 hourly.

The district has 52 regular education buses and 37 specialized transportation buses to currently transport about 7,500 students per day. During the course of a year, the district provides more than 2 million rides (a.m. and p.m. combined).

In terms of budget lines, regular busing came with a cost of $3.4 million for 2020, and special education totaled more than $4 million for 2020.

“We are putting together an RFP. We’ll be going out to bid for the contract for next year,” Rauseo said.

The district provides transportation to numerous schools, including the 17 Nashua School District structures, the Brentwood Program, Clearway, three Catholic schools in Nashua and two charter schools. Transportation for the Catholic and charter schools costs about $121,000. Rauseo estimated off the top of his head that this includes about 600 students.

However, additional transportation is also provided, such as high school shuttles, late buses, vocational education buses, summer school buses for English Language Learners (ELL), special education and summer Power Scholars.

Rauseo said a major portion of the budget involves out-of-district transportation. Nashua buses students to a number of schools not just out of district, but out of state. The district is currently providing transportation for 57 special education students to attend schools in communities such as Andover, Massachusetts, Chelmsford, Massachusetts and even toward the Seacoast of New Hampshire in Rye.

In addition, the district also currently provides transportation for 18 students living outside the city to Nashua Schools. These out-of-district transportation costs come with a price tag of $581,950.

“It’s quite expensive,” Rauseo said. “Some of these buses may have several kids on it; some of these buses may have only one student on it.”

The district does charge high school students for bus usage. A full-year ticket costs $65, while a half-year pass costs $32.50. Students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch also receive a free or reduced pass. Currently, the district has 2,184 high school student ticket holders.

For the first time, the district is now able to do online ticket sales, as this became active in January. Rauseo said this works well and gives parents a credit or debit card option.

Through working with First Student, officials are also aiming to implement the FirstView parent application this spring, as well as a district dashboard. This is an app that parents can download to get notifications on where a school bus is, if it is running late and see when it leaves school in the afternoon or when it arrives in the morning.

Rauseo said the district dashboard will help because he will be able to open his computer in the morning and see all of the bus routes. If a route is green, then the bus is on time. If the route is red, the bus is late.

However, the biggest change of the year is due to a change in state law, as the district will begin transporting kindergarten students for the first time.

“My hope is to do that budget neutral, and looking at it, I believe I can,” Rauseo said.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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