ALLENTOWN: Bus drivers’ jobs get reprieve

School district to hire Millstone staff members

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ALLENTOWN — Upper Freehold Regional School District officials say they have hired 21 of the 30 Millstone bus drivers who recently lost their jobs when that district decided to outsource its transportation routes to UFRSD.
   Although UFRSD Business Administrator Diana Schiraldi says the final details of the inter-local transportation contract are still being worked out by attorneys, both districts have approved what’s known as an “agreement in principle.” UFRSD approved the tentative agreement at its Aug. 18 school board meeting and the Millstone Board of Education OK’d it on Aug. 9.
   The Millstone school board solicited bids from private bus companies, but changed its mind about awarding a contract after parents and bus drivers raised safety concerns at several public meetings this summer. Under the last-minute deal worked out instead with UFRSD, Millstone will pay UFRSD $801,330 a year to take over the 20 multi-tiered regular education bus routes in Millstone.
   Outsourcing the transportation routes saves Millstone about $300,000 a year, according to Millstone School Business Administrator Bernie Biesiada.
   At a recent job fair held at Allentown High School, 21 of the unemployed Millstone drivers accepted job offers from UFRSD, even though some will be paid substantially less than they earned working for the Millstone School District.
   The former Millstone drivers, some of whom had more than a decade of experience, will all be paid entry-level wages of $15.26 per hour, Ms. Schiraldi said. Top pay in Millstone had been $24.86 an hour for a bus driver with 10 or more years of experience in the district, according to Mr. Biesiada.
   ”All of the drivers come to us as new employees and as new employees had to start at the very beginning of the pay scale because that has been our policy,” UFRSD Superintendent Dick Fitzpatrick said at the Aug. 18 school board meeting.
   ”We appreciate their long experience as drivers, but we also realize as a community that the only way we can help them is if we stay within budget, and that’s what we did and they were very, very appreciative.”
   The drivers will have more comprehensive health benefits with UFRSD than if they had been hired by the private bus company that was in line to receive the Millstone transportation contract, Mr. Biesiada said last week.
   The private contractor did not offer major medical health insurance. UFRSD employees do have major medical coverage because they are insured through the NJ State Health Benefits Plan. The bus drivers will contribute 9.8 percent of their salaries toward their health insurance coverage through payroll deductions, according to Ms. Schiraldi.
   The former Millstone drivers will be assigned routes serving Millstone students because they are most familiar with the community, UFRSD officials said. Millstone has its own schools for grades K-8, but sends students in grades 9-12 to Allentown High School in the Upper Freehold Regional School District.
   Millstone resident Ramon Recalde thanked the UFRSD school board at its Aug. 18 meeting for hiring the former Millstone bus drivers, whom he said are mostly local residents of that community.
   ”I want to thank you, as a resident of Millstone, for what you have done with our bus situation,” Mr. Recalde said. “We were about to make the mistake of outsourcing to a private company with a very spotty record. The safety of our children and your children should be a priority and you’ve managed to help us in this moment … from the bottom of my heart thank you very much.”
   When voters defeated the UFRSD school budget in April, Upper Freehold also considered privatizing its bus routes to save money, but its drivers agreed to a yearlong salary freeze and offered other ideas to save the district money. These changes, which are being implemented in September, include consolidating bus routes and creating cluster stops at housing development entrances, instead of driving through neighborhoods to make more frequent pickups.
   The inter-local service agreement with Millstone specifies that if UFRSD changes its mind and does decide to privatize bus services anytime within the next three years, Millstone must reimburse UFRSD for any unemployment costs owed to the state for its former drivers.
   UFRSD gains $40,500 under the deal with Millstone, once the expenses of operating the routes are factored into the equation, Ms. Schiraldi said.