Dist. 57 parents fight for buses

Rick Abbott, a Mount Prospect Elementary District 57 bus driver, spoke up to defend his fellow drivers on Thursday.

"The people who drive your buses are from your community," said Abbott. "Some had children go through your schools or some like the flexible schedule so they can be moms. If you outsource, you are shortchanging your children."

On Thursday, the school board took the first step toward hiring a separate company to run their bus system by asking companies to bid on the service. Whether or not this will save the district money won't be known until June 17 and a decision won't be final until the board picks a company in July.

More than 75 parents attended the meeting and most want to keep the service in house. Some said they would stop using the district's buses altogether if the system was outsourced.

Eric Jakubowski said parents put a lot of trust in their bus drivers.

"I'm concerned about the timing of this," said Jakubowski, who has five kids in the district. "To rush this decision in order to put the March incident behind you is a mistake. Once to dismantle the system, you can't put it back together."

The school board started talking about outsourcing a few weeks after one of their bus drivers, Betty Burden, was arrested on charges of allegedly being intoxicated while she drove 50 students home from school on March 9.

Her blood-alcohol content registered .230 at the scene, police said. A little more than a week later, the school board fired her and her supervisor.

Burden pleaded not guilty to aggravated DUI last week. If convicted, she could face between one and three years in prison. She could also receive probation.

Parent Venus Awe said the school board is looking at outsourcing now because of a "fear of liability."

"You can't stop bad things from happening," Awe said. "If you make this decision, you're saying our kids no longer come first."

However Superintendent Elaine Aumiller said that while children's' safety is important, so is the district's finances.

"We have to look at every system we have to cut costs," she said. "Otherwise we're not being responsible to the taxpayers."

In April the school board spent $12,500 to hire a company to evaluate the district's transportation system and talk to bus drivers and principals. 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 which "allows for determining if there are 'no-shows,' communicate any changes or adjustments and most importantly, observe the condition of each driver," according to the report.

A copy of the District 57 bus audit can be seen at www.d57.org.