The ConVal School Board voted Tuesday night to sign a new transportation contract with Student Transportation of America, the district’s current vendor.
The contract, recommended by ConVal Business Administrator Neal Cass, will take effect for the 2026-27 school year. Cass said the cost of the agreement is already built into the proposed 2026-27 budget. Transportation accounts for about 3% of ConVal’s total spending.
Cass told the board on Nov. 4 that transportation RFPs had been sent to three regional contractors and posted on the district website, but STA was the only respondent. The company’s bid was valid for 45 days.
“This bid is comparable to what other districts have found going out to bid,” he said. “The choice is to accept the contract, or re-do the RFP.”
Responding to questions from board members about why other vendors had not responded to the RFP, Cass said that the other companies “did not feel they could put in a competitive bid.”
“I did follow up with the other two vendors who did not put in bids, and they said that their overhead costs are such that they could not put in a competitive bid,” Cass said. “It is very hard to find drivers. We have increased pay for drivers in the new contract.”
Cass said STA plans to replace most of the fleet of buses for the 2026-2027 school year.
The rising cost of transportation in the district, which covers 250 square miles, nine towns, and 11 buildings, has been an ongoing concern to the board. Greenfield representative Curtis Hamilton noted that “transportation costs have increased in excess of 10% on an annualized basis in prior years,” and that “these costs are largely out of our control.”
ConVal is also responsible for providing transportation for special education placements, some of which are out of the district. The district must also comply with the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act, which requires school districts to provide transportation to students who have become unhoused so they can stay in their school of origin.
District plans to research single-tier busing
Board members reiterated their interest in exploring single-tier busing, which would place all K-12 students on the same morning and afternoon routes and align school start times. Currently, the high school and middle and elementary schools have separate bus routes and start times.
Peterborough representative Dr. Gregory Kriebel, a pediatrician, called ConVal High School’s 7:35 a.m. start time “a serious outlier,” noting that fewer than 10% of schools nationwide start that early.
“If this is not single-tier, we need to put funds for single-tier in the budget. There has to be a more efficient way to pick up our students so the kids don’t have to get up before dawn when they should really still be asleep,” Kriebel said.
Peterborough representative Janine Lesser reminded the board that ConVal students previously presented research showing later start times benefit high-school students.
Cass confirmed that while the new contract with STA does not include the cost of creating a single-tier bus route, “it is something they can start looking into right away.”
“If we want to move in that direction, we would work with the contractor and use the software to see if we could do that,” Cass said, estimating that the analysis would cost $12,000 to $15,000.
“We are very interested in seeing what it costs. Some of us really want single-tier busing,” Lesser said.
ConVal’s student representative, Liam Armstrong, spoke in favor of the change.
“Right now what we have is a lot of students drinking massive amounts of energy drinks to cope with the early bus routes and start time, and that is not healthy,” Armstrong said.
For more information about the ConVal School Board, visit schoolboard.conval.edu/en-US.