Quaker Valley School District officials approve new student transportation contract through 2029-30 school year

Quaker Valley School District officials have inked a new five-year deal with the district’s busing company.

Monark Student Transportation Corp. will be taking young Quakers to and from school through the 2029-30 school year.

The board ratified its contract approval on Aug. 19 via 8-0 vote. Board member Kati Doebler was absent.

Negotiations have been ongoing since December. The contract also has an optional three-year extension.

Monark has been the district’s transportation provider since December 2008.

District director of finance and operations Brooke Baker said Quaker Valley has 32 bus drivers and uses 28 buses.

About 1,600 students take the bus to their respective schools. Total enrollment this school year is about 1,830.

Baker said the district reached out to three other busing companies, but neither of them had garages close to Quaker Valley and they did not have enough drivers available for the district’s needs. Monark’s garage is in Ambridge.

“I think other contractors would have liked to help us out, but right now they just didn’t have the time frame to be able to service us fully,” Baker said.

Board member Giani Floro said Monark is very familiar with the district, its students and streets. He was happy to approve a new deal.

“In the present climate of student transportation, we are very fortunate to have a provider that has operations close to the district,” Floro said after the Aug. 19 meeting. “That has a garage close to the district. There are surrounding districts that also use third-party providers (for student transportation). A lot of these providers have to be close to have the buses on staff quickly.

“Monark, we’ve developed a relationship with them in terms of the administrative team working with them to determine when and where it’s safe to transport our students.”

Financial terms of the contract were not available at press time.

The district usually attaches contract proposals to its online agendas via BoardDocs.

However, it was not done this time. The list of authorized bus drivers and bus stops was attached to separate motions on the Aug. 19 agenda. Both actions passed with the same vote as the bus contract. Monark officials declined to comment.

TribLive submitted a Right-to-Know request to the district Aug. 21 seeking financial terms of the contract as well as how much the district paid for student transportation last school year.

The request was made after no responses were given to several other attempts for that information last week.

Parents can see their children’s bus routes and stops via the district’s ParentPortal. It is a new service offered this year.

In other business

The district is in search of a new food services director.

Carla Escribano, a registered dietitian who joined Quaker Valley in 2018 after serving as a clinical dietitian at Villa St. Joseph, is leaving this month to pursue a private sector job.

She was named Director of the Year by the School Nutrition Association of Pennsylvania in 2023.

SNAPA is the statewide nonprofit organization of school nutrition professionals committed to advancing the quality of child nutrition programs through education and advocacy. It was organized in 1955.

The Director of the Year Award is presented each year at the state, regional and national level.

Popular student meals served by Escribano and her team included breakfast sandwiches with egg, turkey and cheese, while pasta with meat sauce is the popular choice for lunch.

District director of communications Michelle Dietz said each school has a cafeteria leader who manages the kitchen and daily operations.

Student meals will continue to be prepared as planned and the food director’s departure will not impact the delivery of student meals.

The first day of school for all students was Aug. 21.

A message at Escribano’s district office seeking comment was not returned by presstime.

District officials said her last day was Aug. 22.

The job is posted on the district’s website under the employment section of the “District” tab on the main page.