Two Items of Interest in SPS

Update

This item is up for intro/action at tonight's school board meeting. Key info from the BAR (Board Action Report) showed two contracts at $39.5M EACH and I just about had a heart attack.  But reading further in the BAR we see:

While for maximum flexibility each contract authorizes the district to assign up to 100% of the required routes to a single provider, the goal of the district during the 2022-23 school year is to allocate routes approximately evenly between the two contracts authorized in this action. As each vendor will be providing approximately 50% of the required services, the expected actual expenditures under each contract will be significantly less than the fully authorized amount.

If the service is evenly split between the two contracts, the fiscal impact to this action will be approximately $45,200,000. This amount is higher than the value of the individual contracts because receiving service from multiple vendors leads to the district being billed at the higher rates associated with the smaller number of buses each vendor provides.

While formaximum flexibility each contract authorizes the district to assign up to 100% of the required routes to a single provider, the goal of the district during the 2022-23 school year is to allocate routes approximately evenly between the two contracts authorized in this action. As each vendor will be providing approximately 50% of the required services, the expected actual expenditures under each contract will be significantly less than the fully authorized amount.If the service is evenly split between the two contracts, the fiscal impact to this action will be approximately $45,200,000. This amount is higher than the value of the individual contracts because receiving service from multiple vendors leads to the district being billed at the higher The revenue source for this motion is $26,123,735 of state transportation revenues with the balance from other general fund sources, including operation levy funds.

While for each contract authorizes the district to assign up to 100% of the required routes to a single provIf the service is evenly split between the two contracts, the fiscal impact to this action will be approximately $45,200,000. This amount is higher than the value of the individual contracts because receiving service from multiple vendors leads to the district being billed at the higher rates associated with the smaller number of buses each vendor provides.

The revenue source for this motion is $26,123,735 of state transportation revenues with the balance from other general fund sources, including operation levy funds.

end of update

One item is that the district FINALLY landed on who will be providing transportation for SPS students next school year. And the winner turns out to be....two companies. From The Seattle Times:

On Wednesday, the Seattle School Board will vote on a three-year, $42 million measure that would split transportation services between the district’s current carrier, First Student, and its first competitor for the contract in many years — a California-based company named Zum that provides bus service in districts like San Francisco and Oakland.

Mary Ellen Russell, a parent and chair of the city’s School Traffic Safety Committee, said splitting the arrangement would be better than handing the entire thing to First Student, but she remains against the district’s decision to continue relying on the company. 

After Zum protested the district’s April decision to award the bid to First Student, First Student wrote to district officials highlighting legal issues that Zum encountered in California.

Among them: a lawsuit against the company alleging that workers in San Francisco weren’t paid for activities they were expected to perform before the start of their shifts, and that the company kept video cameras running in buses even while drivers were on break, potentially recording their private conversations and movements. Narayan said Zum has denied all the claims.

My read of this outcome is that the district seemed to be blatantly in favor of First Student, despite their terrible record of violations, and against Zum. I suspect Zum threatened to sue and hence, this decision.

How will it work?

Now, the district is recommending an arrangement where both are on call for service but won’t be entitled to a minimum number of routes.

The flexibility of having two contractors would allow one to provide service if the other falls through, district officials said.

Really? How will that work?

Key paragraph from the story (bold mine):

But, at the end of the presentation shown to the School Board about the proposed arrangement, district officials provided one clear detail, a yearly trend which parents have now come to expect: “It is still anticipated that the district will not be able to serve all routes at the start of the school year.”

And just an aside paragraph from the story is a quote from Board President Brandon Hersey that I had to shake my head at given the June 2nd episode at Sand Point Elementary School:

“The safety violations that have come to light have been nothing short of egregious, and as a board director, it is my utmost priority that they get to school to be safe and on time,” he said. “We have required both providers to submit safety plans, and we as leaders will not tolerate any type of behavior that has put our children at risk, and address them very clearly in these contracts. There will be zero tolerance.”

And what was the safety plan at SPES?

The other Times' story is the announcement from the Board of the three new student "Board" members that were selected to serve this next school year. All are senior high school students; one from The Center School (Luna Crone-Baron), Chief Sealth International High School (Nassira Hassan) and Franklin High School (Jia Li Yuan who goes by Jenna).

In order to be chosen for the positions, students had to go through an application and interview process, get teacher references, and create a video explaining why they wanted to be a student board member. Every school year there will be three, five, or seven student board members.

Crone-Baron and her fellow student board members Nassira Hassan and Jia Li Yuan (who goes by Jenna) will be sitting alongside elected board members and will rotate their attendance at meetings.

I see no formal announcement from the Board at the district website yet.

What are the students interested in giving input on?

Some of the topics the three incoming student board members hope to tackle: safety in buildings, sexual assault prevention, student mental health and funding inequities.

Improving communication and transparency between the district and families is a priority, said Yuan, an incoming senior at Franklin High School. She recalled the various closures and shelter-in-place orders this past school year when Franklin was threatened by violence.

One fascinating finding:

Meetings last between two and four hours on average, and students will be paid $17.27 an hour, not to exceed 20 hours per month. (The elected board members make about $50 for every day they work on behalf of the district; their compensation is capped at $4,800 a year.)

So then the per diem for Board members is $50 but students will make more than that for a single meeting if the meeting is over 3 hours? Funny stuff.

What I read of the Board's description of the job is that each student is assigned to a Board committee and those meetings generally run over two hours. It doesn't say anything about non-meeting work like reading agendas and their accompanying documentation. I can tell you from decades of experience that takes hours as well.