Board seeks ways to contain student transportation costs

Over the next several months, the Department of Education hopes to contain student transportation costs and develop a long-term plan for reining in spending, the head of school support services told Board of Education members Tuesday.

Ray L’Heureux, assistant superintendent of the DOE’s Office of School Facilities and Support Services, said it could take several years to complete an overhaul of student transportation services and address myriad monitoring, procurement and cost-efficiency concerns.

But he said there is some "low-hanging fruit" that can be considered right away.

For the coming school year, the DOE is looking at the possibility of staggering times when the school day starts and ends — a change that could potentially save millions of dollars in school bus costs.

Meanwhile, there are 57 school bus contracts that expire at the end of the school year, giving the DOE a chance to attract new bidders and clarify its expectations.

L’Heureux, who took the job in July, addressed Board of Education members in the wake of a scathing audit of school bus services, which concluded poor state planning and oversight allowed the costs of providing student transportation to skyrocket in recent years.

The report, released Friday, also took issue with the dearth of competitive bidding in bus contracts and the lack of timely data needed to review and analyze bus ridership, routes and capacity.

SOME 48,000 general and special education students ride school buses. Last school year, the price tag for providing student transportation services was $77 million, up from $29 million in the 2005-06 school year.

The bulk of the cost of providing school bus service comes from taxpayers. The DOE has also tried to tackle rising costs by raising bus fares, consolidating routes and, this school year, cutting service. (About 2,000 students were affected by route eliminations last month).

L’Heureux told the BOE he agreed with the major findings in the audit, and saw it as a call to action. "It does give us a great opportunity to say, ‘Hey, this is the time to change,’" he said.

BOE members also applauded the audit and urged L’Heureux to work quickly to come up with strategies to tamp down costs. Members said they wanted to be able to head into the new legislative session with clear approaches for addressing school bus spending.

"We’re running out of time for this coming school year," said Wes Lo, chairman of the BOE Finance and Infrastructure Committee. "We need to start having some plans we can chew on. There’s a tremendous opportunity to make some changes now."

BOE member Keith Amemiya said that come January, "We have to be prepared to answer to the legislators and the taxpayers with respect to school bus costs."

The DOE has hired a consultant, at a cost of $109,000, to study Hawaii’s student transportation system and make recommendations for improving system management and oversight. The consultant, Maryland-based Management Partnership Services, is expected to have a final report to the department by mid-November.

L’Heureux said he won’t wait for the report, though, to start making changes.

"We’ll start working (now)," he said. "We’re not just going to be waiting for the assessment."