Seattle Schools Threatens First Student (Big Time)

In the on-going saga about school bus service, there's this from Teamsters Local 174:

In a direct response to Local 174 Secretary Treasurer Rick Hicks’s letter dated October 30, 2017, Seattle Public Schools Assistant Superintendent for Operations Pegi McEvoy has sent a letter to First Student. 

A PDF of the letter is available here.  

The letter states that if First Student does not reach a resolution with the Teamsters to avoid a strike, the District will be seeking damages from First Student to the maximum extent allowed by law — potentially at a cost of $1.2 million per day.


From the SPS letter from Pegi McEvoy (partial):

As you know, thousands of our students and their families depend on bus service each day to travel to and from school. Should daily bus service be disrupted, the lives and education of many students will be significantly and adversely impacted. In addition to this disruption, Seattle Public Schools could also face substantial costs to address your failure to provide the contractually obligated service.

Your contract with Seattle Public Schools mandates that you provide continuous and uninterrupted bus service. The contract provides for significant liquidated damages for every missed route. Our preliminary calculations indicate that liquidated damages for missing all routes due to strike would result in damages of approximately $1.2 Million per day. We will vigorously seek such damages, along with any others allowed, in the event service is interrupted due to a strike.

We appreciate the efforts you have taken to date to resolve the issues with your drivers. We encourage you to promptly resolve remaining issues and avoid a very costly and disruptive interruption to bus service.