Ann Arbor school board adopts resolution expressing interest in countywide busing system
A plan to consolidate school transportation departments across Washtenaw County took a big step forward Wednesday night when the Ann Arbor school board signed on in principle.
But the school board isn’t completely sold on the concept and will have one more chance to opt out later this month, when the district receives a formal contract from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District and a competing bid from the district's bus drivers union.
The board voted unanimously at its Wednesday night meeting to approve a resolution expressing interest in joining the countywide program to be run by the WISD. As the county’s largest district, Ann Arbor’s participation was deemed vital in the consolidation plans.
The consolidation first targeted all 10 of the county’s traditional school districts. But only five have expressed interest in it, officials said. Lincoln, Willow Run and Ypsilanti all voted in favor of the same resolution Ann Arbor approved, with contract details to follow.
The Ann Arbor school board moved forward Wednesday on a plan to join a countywide busing system.
In addition, all the county’s districts - except Chelsea - have expressed interest in pooling together for special education busing.
The goal for Ann Arbor is to save $1.5 million. District administrators told the board Wednesday night they estimate they can get $1.3 million in savings in the first year, without any major changes to general education bus routes.
The bulk of the savings would come in reduced personnel costs, with wages for Ann Arbor’s bus drivers to be cuts and contributions to health insurance to rise.
Forty-eight of the district’s 137 drivers make $18.09 an hour, the top of the wage scale. The top of the wage scale under the consolidation would be $16.50 an hour.
At the same time, several supervisory positions in the new WISD system would likely see salary increases over Ann Arbor's pay scale. For example, a bus driver supervisor could see a bump of up to $20,000 a year.
Several school board members expressed concerns about the proposed wages.
“I’m very troubled by the fact that one group of people are taking a significant pay cut and others are getting significant pay increases,” Trustee Andy Thomas said.
Trustees also expressed strong reservations about the salary scale proposed by the WISD. Thomas noted that in eight of the 11 supervisory positions, the WISD upped the salary range from what an administrative planning team recommended.
Brian Marcel, the WISD assistant superintendent for finance, said the increases were made to fit those positions into the existing salary structure at the WISD. He said they believe a bus driver supervisor in charge of 50 people should be paid roughly the same as a person in another part of the WISD who supervises 50 people.
“We had to blend them into our organization," he said. "That became complicated.”
The salary talk obscured the real issue, school board Trustee Glenn Nelson said.
“We are cutting budgets and that is going to cause some hurt in the system," he said. "How much of that hurt should go to the adults, and how much should go to our students? A vote, in my mind, against this resolution is stressing the harm that could be done to the adults in our system. It’s not something I want to do to adults, but our mission is about young people and children.”
Trustee Simone Lightfoot disagreed.
“I look at the tradeoff in this issue as both/and," she said. "We have an obligation to take care of both our instruction (of students) and our employees.”
Consolidation has to happen,Trustee Christine Stead argued, noting county voters turned down a countywide enhancement millage last fall. She said many residents, throughout the county and in Ann Arbor, told the county’s school districts they wanted to see more consolidation of services. Stead warned if the board didn’t go ahead with the move, it would have a hard time going to voters again to ask for more funds.
In the end, board members said the budget realities are forcing their hands.
“I come back to the fact that we’re looking at a $20 million budget deficit (for next school year) and a pending deficit of $15 million for the following year,” Thomas said. “I have some very serious misgivings about the specifics of this plan (but) we’ve been told, loud and clear, that they (voters) expect us, and other district, to become more efficient.”
Trustee Irene Patalan agreed. “The efficiency can not be overlooked. We live in different times.”
The board will have to officially approve the contract before joining the new busing system. If the board adopts it, the district will eliminate its transportation department staff, all of whom will be able to apply for a job with the new entity.
Under the terms of the district’s contract with the bus drivers union, the union also has a chance to submit a bid to save the district money.
School board Trustee Susan Baskett said the union needs to hurry.
“I want to stress to the bargaining unit - we’re running out of time," she said,
David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 723-623-2534.
Comments
L'chaim
Tue, Jun 15, 2010 : 12:24 p.m.
This "preliminary approval" seems to be a stop-gap measure to assure other districts that the AAPS is "on-board" so that they don't get cold feet, and to boost the ISD's desperate attempts to get participation. The constant repetition of late that "Lincoln has approved it, too" despite no formal vote by the LCS BOE seems to me geared for the same effect. What's the hold up? The AAPS tried to short-change the Drivers/Monitors union on it's lawful right to counter-bid by waiting until the last minute. Now they have to wait while the union puts one together (which is still in process as I write). Despite the Union's best concessionary cow-towing, this plan seems inevitable.
L'chaim
Tue, Jun 15, 2010 : 12:15 p.m.
When did the Lincoln District officially approve this plan? I was sitting with Lincoln drivers who came to the AAPS Board meeting on June 4 and June 9. When Brian Marcel said that Lincoln had approved it, they nearly interrupted him. Lincoln has had no formal vote on this, to the best of our knowledge. What's up with that?
jns131
Fri, Jun 11, 2010 : 9:25 a.m.
Sad day? From what I am seeing now, a lot of drivers and monitors will opt out thru retirement because their medical will be a lot better then what they will get thru unemployment. A lot of parents and children will loose their favorite driver and who knows what will happen in September. The lay offs will occur at the end of summer. Which is going to be fun watching WISD scramble to find 400 jobs for all the bus routes that are going to be needed to be driven. I wonder if Washtenaw County can handle a mass lay off. It will fun to see what happens in September. I really hope they do what Livingston County did, transition them and made them employees of their ISD. Sure will save them a lot of headaches and ease parental unit worries.
sad day
Fri, Jun 11, 2010 : 7:47 a.m.
good luck trying to find enough drivers by September. All the drivers I know will either retire or choose to draw unemployment. These drivers are highly qualified by the State of Michigan, have clean driver records and has passed the background checks. Shame on all the districts for picking on the little guy. These people have your children first thing in the morning and the last thing in the afternoon. I hope your decisions come back and bite you in the you know what.
hocksk8
Fri, Jun 11, 2010 : 5:36 a.m.
As a parent in the AAPS that has used the current bus system for 6yrs I'm very uneasy about the changes that are infront of us. I have always felt very safe putting my young children on the bus knowing that the drivers care and will get them to school safe. If the district has no say in who takes the children to school how do I know that the standards for hiring new drivers will be GOOD? I live in Ann Arbor for a reason it has always had good schools and a good bus system for the students. I have looked into moving out for Ann Arbor many times but I have never liked the the schools that put young children on a bus with middle or high school age students. Please don't change something that has been good since I was a young child riding the AAPS buses!
Carole
Thu, Jun 10, 2010 : 12:32 p.m.
Do not privatize or consolidate with WISD at the expense of losing our outstanding bus drivers -- many who have been with the system for a number of years and have a good deal of experience, not only with driving buses, but with assuring that the children in their care reach the schools in a safe and secure environment. Trustee Nielsen, this is about children -- you give them a good start to their day, the day continues to be good while attending their academic classes. Why are the bus drivers having to take cuts and not administration? I was astonished to hear what the salary was for the current director of transportation -- is that individual taking a cut in pay? Why not take a closer look at ways to stream line the present transportation system -- are there shorter routes that can be taken, consolidating routes so driving times are shorten. I believe very strongly that a much closer look at the system as it presently is and see what changes that can be made to allow for cuts. The AAPS bus drivers are to be commended for providing the safety of the communities' children -- getting them to school safely and securely and sometimes in the worst of weather. Come on folks support our bus drivers.
kenUM
Thu, Jun 10, 2010 : 9:39 a.m.
@Gloriagirl I agree with you for the most part, unfortunately, I do not believe that having AATA take over the School routes is viable for AAPS. I am not sure what it cost AAPS per hour to operate the yellow buses, but AATA's cost per hour is more than $100.00 per hour. The MTA in Flint at one time operated the City School System's bus fleet and it became more cost effective for Flint Public Schools to take the service back. I sincerely hope that the AAPS Bus Driver's Union and the Board of Education can reach an agreement. I agree we need to focus more on taking care of the foks that care for our kids!
jns131
Thu, Jun 10, 2010 : 9:22 a.m.
Ann Arbor is going to loose over half of its drivers and monitors to other jobs and/or county's that are not going to consolidate because they know that consolidation and privatization is not the answer to keeping bus driving safe. As I am saying all along, teachers need to take a 10% hit and so does the administration. I am so glad I have health insurance elsewhere. Otherwise we would have no insurance because I can't afford $2000 deductible before we are insured and this does not carry over to the next year. So, every year I have to come up with $2000 to cover my family before I am covered by the insurance? Sounds like a racket to me. Lets reopen the teacher and administrations contracts and see where we hit them the most. Because right now the bus drivers have nothing to cut except their jobs. Now WISD wants to pay more to their supervisors? At the expense of the drivers? Somewhere something went south. Ann Arbor won't have anyone to drive the children if they have nothing to offer a new driver coming in except a paycheck. If that. It will be interesting in September.
Gloriagirl
Thu, Jun 10, 2010 : 8:02 a.m.
Consideration should be given to the fact that bus administrators in Ann Arbor make over 100k annually plus benefits. If our community is so "green" and have a commitment to the environment by reducing the carbon footprint, redundancy in buses on the road via multiple school districts is a good place to start. Taking advantage of the AATA bus system which operates in many locations already is another option. Then there are all those parents that drive their kids to school and add to the traffic congestion in the morning. Is there any consideration for opting out of busing? Perhaps a scheduled stop can be eliminated by asking a household how their students get to school, creating further efficiencies.
travelor
Thu, Jun 10, 2010 : 8:02 a.m.
Here we go again. Let's stick it to the "least among you." The TOP pay is now $18.00 and will be reduced to $16.00 an hour! What will the pay be for those who are not at the top of the scale? Will the WISD even hire drivers who are at the top of the scale? And driving a school bus is not a 40 hour a week job. Most get paid for 30 hours. How is an individual supposed to support a family in Ann Arbor on $16.00 or less an hour? Why, as a society, do we not value those we ask to care for our children? I suspect we will have to re-learn the old economic truth--You get what you pay for. Only this time will it be our children who have to pay?