Manchester school officials surprised to learn more buses needed
Aug. 13—Manchester school officials hope to acquire some used buses to cover transportation needs for sports and extracurricular activities, after learning the city used a separate fleet of vehicles not owned by the district to cover such trips in the past.
A request for proposals for additional buses appeared to catch many school board members and administrators by surprise Monday night, as the district prepares to take control of bus operations for the first time this fall.
"The analogy is that we decided to take over a restaurant," school board vice chairman Jim O'Connell said at Monday's school board meeting. "We're going to hire the staff, we're going to serve the food, and that's all we need. Now we find out in July, a year or two into the process, that actually we need to buy the tables and some of the equipment as well.
"I just dislike that we're sitting here two weeks before school opens, being told we issued an RFP to spend money to buy buses to supply a service that was never mentioned before," he said. "I think that's questionable activity."
Forrest Ransdell, the district's assistant operations superintendent, said he was made aware of the need for additional buses just last month.
"No one was more surprised at that development than myself, and I can't really put it any other way," Ransdell told O'Connell. "When I found out, that's when I began to look at what our possible solutions could be/should be, and all I can do is take responsibility for what I did not know."
"I share committee member O'Connell's surprise and concern that we just found this out," school board member Chris Potter said.
Tired of unreliable service, Manchester school officials voted in March to take control of bus operations this fall at a cost of more than $4.2 million.
The plan, approved on a unanimous voice vote, includes the creation of a new Manchester School District Transportation department for the 2024-2025 school year, the hiring of 46 bus drivers at a cost of $2.5 million and four new managers to oversee it at a cost of almost $600,000 for salaries, retirement and benefits. Total personnel costs are anticipated at $3.1 million.
According to Ransdell, the bus routes for the 2024-2025 school year are being worked on, with an estimated 44 routes in the morning and again in the afternoon. That number could change, he said.
The district has 44 drivers and wants to hire two more.
Ransdell said the district has 52 school buses: four 30-passenger buses, five 14-passenger buses, six 89-passenger buses, and 37 buses that hold 77 passengers.
After learning the Manchester Transit Authority regularly supplemented the school fleet with its own buses for athletics and extracurricular charters, the district posted a request for proposals (RFP) to purchase 10 previously owned school buses. Ransdell estimated the cost of a new bus to be around $200,000. Used ones are significantly less.
"We have several sources that have shared some well-maintained and low-mileage vehicles that we believe we can add to the fleet," Ransdell said.
The district has approximately $1.2 million in capital funds intended specifically for vehicle acquisition, Ransdell said. The hope is to bring a purchase plan to the full board for approval at the Sept. 9 meeting.
O'Connell questioned how the district was unaware of the additional buses for so long.
"How do we end up in a multi-year planning process, and then find out in July — surprise! — there are buses that are actually not ours?" O'Connell said.
"We're being told, out of the blue, that we're buying buses — a capital expenditure — for something that we've been planning for more than a year."
Superintendent Jenn Gillis said she doesn't like that the district is in the position of having to do an RFP at this late date.
"I will say that the team flexed quickly to recognize the error of the number that we had," Gillis said.
"We've never done transportation in-house to the district before," Gillis said. "I'm going to say right now, my prediction as we go into the month of September — as we do any year — we are going to learn a ton.
"We are committed to getting students home to school in an effective and efficient manner."
