The Department of Education will reinstate bus service next month for about 1,000 Oahu students whose routes were slashed last school year as the department faced a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.
The move is possible through a pilot initiative that steps up transportation-related efficiencies by way of revamped vendor contracts and use of new technology.
At this time last year, the DOE was faced with a $17 million shortfall for student transportation when lawmakers refused to fund escalating costs. As a result, the department cut 103 routes serving 51 schools, leaving more than 2,000 students statewide without school bus service.
Since 2006 the cost of providing student transportation has nearly tripled to $72.4 million, a report by the state auditor found last year. The audit concluded the DOE had essentially lost control of its school bus program, failing to address anti-competitive behavior among contractors and allowing costs to dramatically increase.
A subsequent DOE-commissioned study called for a complete redesign of the student transportation branch to rein in costs. Ray L’Heureux, assistant superintendent for school facilities and support services, has been leading the effort since joining the DOE a year ago.
The school bus program services about 39,000 general-education students. In addition, free curb-to-curb service is required for about 4,000 special-education students.
L’Heureux said a phased overhaul of the transportation system will begin this school year with bus routes serving 30 schools in the Aiea/Pearl City/Radford complex area. The restored service for the 1,000 students is within the pilot area, which was selected in part because existing contracts were set to expire.
The pilot — dubbed the "Get on Board" initiative — involves revamped vendor contracts and new technology that will collect real-time data on routes and riders for the first time. Registered student riders will be assigned cards with magnetically coded information to swipe while getting on and off buses, while buses will be equipped with GPS trackers.
Under the DOE’s previous contracting model, L’Heureux said, the department paid for buses by the routes, regardless of how many students were taking advantage of the service.
"In this new contracting and procurement methodology, we’re not buying buses by routes anymore," he said, referring to a single back-and-forth run. "We’re buying the buses by bus for an allotment of time. So it’s incumbent upon the branch, for the first time ever, to manage its own routing, and that’s hugely important and that will show the efficiencies."
The change will allow the DOE to reduce the number of routes and buses in service while increasing the number of students served in the pilot area.
L’Heureux said the process has been "arduous," and credited vendors servicing the pilot area — Tomasa’s Bus Co., Ground Transport and Gomes School Bus Service — for their cooperation through the redesign effort.
"There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have the most contemporary and best practices applied to our transportation model," L’Heureux said in an interview. "We’re hoping to gain the confidence back of the parents and our legislators that we have our fiscal house in order."
Last year’s route eliminations and consolidations were projected to save about $5.5 million while the rest of the shortfall was covered by federal funds and by taking from other DOE programs. In previous years the DOE has tried to cut costs by raising bus fares and consolidating routes while using federal funds and other money to cover shortfalls.
L’Heureux said the next phase of the overhaul will involve expanding the new contracting and procurement model and technologies to the rest of Oahu. Requests for proposals with the new requirements, for the 2014-15 school year, will "hit the streets" this week, he said. Neighbor island contracts will be revised for the following school year.
"By 2015-16 we’ve got a complete overhaul of school transportation," L’Heureux told the Board of Education’s Finance and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday.
He said it’s too early to project specific dollar savings but said he expects to find efficiencies along the way allowing the DOE to restore service that has been cut in recent years.
