Highlands weighs 2 proposals for student busing
Highlands School District, previously chastised by state officials for not seeking bids for busing, is weighing two proposals for transportation services.
The district has proposals from its current and longtime provider, WL Roenigk, and ABC Transit, district business Manager Lori Byron said.
Byron would not provide costs put forward in the proposals.
Highlands’ current contract with Roenigk expires June 30. A new contract will run for three or five years, Byron said.
Highlands transports about 2,234 students, according to its request for proposals.
The state has previously criticized Highlands for not seeking bids for transportation.
In 2016, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Highlands was one of 19 districts in 11 counties that spent $54.8 million more on transportation than state reimbursement provided. That’s money that otherwise could have been spent on education, DePasquale said.
For the school years audited — 2008-09 to 2011-12 — Highlands spent $3.4 million over the state transportation formula, DePasquale said. Highlands said then it had no intention of getting bids for transportation services.
Highlands did not respond when asked whether the audit factored into the district seeking proposals this year.
The state’s Public School Code does not require school districts to get bids for busing services. Highlands has negotiated agreements with Roenigk for years.
DePasquale has called on lawmakers to require districts to seek competitive bids for transportation services.
Gary Miller, a spokesman for DePasquale, on Tuesday said it’s encouraging that Highlands is looking for bids.
“The auditor general still feels it would be appropriate for the General Assembly to update the Public School Code to require bidding of transportation contracts, as he has called for in the past,” Miller said.
“It’s just common sense when you’re spending taxpayer money that you look to maximize it by getting competitive bids for these services,” he said.
Highlands School Board may vote to award a contract at its meeting slated for 7 p.m. April 15 at the high school.
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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