Greater Latrobe chooses DMJ Transportation to bus students

Greater Latrobe students who take the bus next school year will be transported by a new carrier, one that will save the district about $1 million.

The Greater Latrobe School Board voted 7-0 Thursday to switch to DMJ Transportation Inc. of Mt. Pleasant Township, beginning July 1.

Over the life of a five-year contract, Greater Latrobe will save the school district about $1 million, compared to the current contractor, A.J. Myers & Sons, said Ned Nakles, district solicitor.

DMJ, which also transports students to Greensburg Salem and Mt. Pleasant Area schools, has GPS-equipped buses, district officials noted — a feature that Myers would have been required to add.

Greater Latrobe Superintendent Georgia Teppert said the GPS devices will allow district administrators to use their phones to track the location of any school bus and also tell whether it is moving or if the door is open.

“We are able to access that information in the palm of our hand,” Teppert said.

Myers Vice President James Myers questioned how DMJ’s contract proposal can be fiscally feasible. In the first year of its contract, DMJ is set to reduce the annual $7.2 million cost to the district by nearly 6%, before increasing it by 2.75% in each of the subsequent five years.

In contrast, Myers proposed a 1% cost hike in the initial year, followed by a nearly 3% hike each, in the second and fourth years, and a 1.47% cost increase each, in the third and fifth years.

“Are you guys willing to sacrifice service for a low price?” Myers asked the board.

“As a board, we care about 4,500 kids,” school director William Palmer said of district students. “That’s who we work for. The taxpayers, in our minds, are there, but they’re not quite equal.”

Several parents said they don’t want their children to lose the trusting relationship they have with current Myers drivers. DMJ CEO Lisa Barron said she would welcome former Myers drivers to join her company, but several of the drivers scoffed at the idea, charging that DMJ is unfair to its workers.

“It is not our intention to cut salaries and wages,” Barron said. “That would be cutting off our nose to spite our face.” She said the company matched the wages paid by its predecessors when it gained contracts in new districts.

Addressing a topic that has been circulating in social media, Nakles acknowledged that Greater Latrobe’s transportation secretary has two relatives who work for DMJ — as a dispatcher and in human resources. But, he said, those relationships had no bearing on the proposal submitted by DMJ.

Dan Watson, business administrator, was the only district official who initially reviewed busing proposals when they were submitted, Nakles said.

“It’s not a crime to have relatives in two companies that do business with each other,” Nakles said.

Zorch named board president

The school board also resolved a stalemate in picking a board president.

The six board members present on Monday became deadlocked between incumbent president Eric Hauser and longtime school director Dr. Michael Zorch. All nine board members participated in Thursday’s session, either in person or by phone. Zorch was unanimously approved as president after Hauser withdrew his name.

The board unanimously elected Steven LoCascio as its vice president.

With a few exceptions, the school board agreed to continue holding its committee-of-the-whole meetings on the second Tuesday of the month and its voting meetings on the third Tuesday of the month. Meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior High School Center for Student Creativity.