Durham held the contract for 23 years ?
The KISD Board of Trustees voted in May to award the school transportation program to Goldstar Transit, dropping Durham Transportation for the first time since 1995. {{more: Read More …}}
Although Durham submitted the low bid, the Board went with Goldstar Transit who submitted the next lowest bid. A third company, All Aboard School Transportation, submitted a bid that came in on the high side.
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| Associate Superintendent Mark Biondi ?
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Associate Superintendent for Facilities Mark Biondi made the recommendation at the meeting. Board member ask if there were reasons for the change and Superintendent Gary Dugger responded with an emphatic yes. “We have been having a lot of trouble with the company that we have now,? said Superintendent Gary Dugger. The motion was approved unanimously.
Biondi later confirmed by phone that there had been some serious problems and many complaints about Durham over the past several years and said that it was time for a change.
Goldstar is a transportation company with a Texas headquarters in Austin but is part of Student Transportation Inc. which advertises that it is the third largest student transportation operation in North America. ST has operations in Canada and 15 states.In Texas, Goldstar provides transportation in nine school districts ? Bastrop, Boyd, Burleson, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Fort Bend, Lago Vista, Leander, Little Elm, Terrell, Waco and now Kennedale.
a decision that split the community two decades ago ?
Durham Student Services, a divisions of National Express LLC, was first hired by Kennedale ISD in 1995 to provide complete bus services with the stipulation that Kennedale would still purchase its own buses and Durham would supplement as needed.
Durham, a California base operation, wanted to expand its services in Texas and hoped to capture a large part of the metroplex. A one point it had contracts with Kennedale Burleson, Joshua, Crowley, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw and Keller.
In 1995, Kennedale was actually too small for other private bus companies to consider but Durham was interested because it could tie the operations in with Burleson ISD and Joshua ISD, two district it had only recently obtained a contract for services.
At the time, Kennedale had just dismissed it transportation director and was looking at ways to upgrade the program including training opportunities for the drivers and maintenance personnel. Kennedale informally approach Mansfield ISD about working with their program. When that option didn?t pan out, Kennedale went out for bid.
Unlike the recent Board decision, the original decision was highly controversial at the time as Kennedale had never outsourced transportation. It split the community as well as the Board. Several board meetings and public hearings were conducted before the board finally approved the contract by a vote of 4-3 just before school started for the year.
The bus drivers didn?t want to work for a private company and felt like their interests were not be protected. So on the first day of school that year, four of the seven bus drivers for Kennedale, quit after they had delivered the students to school. They did not return to take the students home. Coaches, teachers and administrators who were certified step in to help and eventually things returned to normal.
But times have changed and not a dissenting word was heard at this board meeting.
doesn’t anticipate much of a change in routes …Biondi did say that Goldstar was examining the present routes but that he wasn’t anticipating much of a change. Goldstar should have a weblink soon on the KISD webpages including each campus sites. KennedaleISD
has just redone its own website district-wide and is busy reloading and updating links.“They [Goldstar], unlike Durham, will have someone at each campus during registration this year to talk with parents and answer questions, said Biondi. He is expecting a smooth roll out.
Find out more about the new bus company @ Goldstar
Transit
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