Mount Prospect District 57 votes to outsource bus system

Four months after one of their bus drivers was arrested on charges of drunken driving, a Mount Prospect school board voted to outsource their transportation system.

With a 6-1 vote, the Mount Prospect Elementary District 57 school board went with the only company that turned in a bid - Grand Prairie Transit. Board member Fred Schafer voted against the idea, saying he couldn't be sure Grand Prairie would do a better job than the district-run system.

But the rest of the school board said the company would do a safer and less expensive job than District 57.

"In this case, we have a bid that saves us money and provides a superior service," board member Michael Withey said. "This makes sense to me,"

Grand Prairie takes over the buses this fall and will be paid $1.06 million. That's about $42,000 less than what the district pays now to run the transportation system in-house. By 2013, outsourcing could save the district $128,500.

According to board president Joe Leane, Grand Prairie will offer every District 57 bus driver a job.

The school board started talking about outsourcing a few weeks after one of their bus drivers, Betty Burden, was accused of being intoxicated while she drove 50 students home from school on March 9. Her blood-alcohol content registered .230 at the scene, police said. The school board later fired her and her supervisor. Burden pleaded not guilty to aggravated DUI in May and awaits trail.

Burden's arrest exposed major problems with how the district runs their bus system, Superintendent Elaine Aumiller said.

"Our liability is huge and March 9 happened," Aumiller said. "We were lucky. I don't want to be in a position to say we were lucky again. We don't have the capacity to deal with some things. It's unfortunate, but we don't."

A handful of parents who attended Thursday's meeting were against outsourcing.

Jean Minasian said 384 parents signed an online petition saying they wanted to keep the bus system in house.

"There is no liability for District 57, no one has filed a lawsuit," Minasian said. "That was the only incident in the past 30 years."

In April the school board hired a company to evaluate the district's transportation system, and the 25-page report recommends the district outsource bus service. Another problem the audit found is that district does not have a supervisor present when drivers report for work; a supervisor "allows for determining if there are 'no-shows,' (would) communicate any changes or adjustments, and most importantly, observe the condition of each driver," according to the report.