Lorain Schools talks transportation costs

LORAIN— Lorain Schools could move its transportation entirely in-house. The district remains under contract with Blue Ash-based Auxilio Services to transport its non-public school students who live within the district's boundaries through the 2025-26 school year, but it is keeping its options open beyond that, Superintendent Jeff Graham said. Ahead of the 2022-23 school year, Lorain Schools contracted with Auxilio rather than longtime transportation vendor First Student after Auxilio's bid came in $1.6 million cheaper than First Student to cover 39 routes in the district. That same year, Lorain Schools purchased 26 buses and four vans using approximately $2.4 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, following concerns about whether Auxilio would be able to transport its students that school year. With the new buses in hand, Lorain Schools hired its own drivers and began providing transportation for its students during the 2022-23 school year while Auxilio bused its non-public school students living within the district (such as students attending St. Peter School or a charter school). According to data from the 2023-24 school year, just under 1,900 students who lived in Lorain Schools' boundaries attended a community school like Lorain Preparatory Academy or Horizon Science Academy. Lorain Schools is legally obligated to provide transportation to those children. Lorain Schools provides busing to students in preschool through 12th grade. District Director of Operations Tony Dimacchia outlined the schools' transportation costs from 2019 to the 2024-25 school year at Monday's Board of Education meeting. In 2019 through 2022, Lorain School used First Student exclusively for its transportation services, which averaged a little over $3 million per year. For fiscal year 2023 (the 2022-23 school year) the district switched to Auxilio and purchased its own buses. In total that year, it spent about $6.5 million on transportation — $3.5 million on buses and drivers in the district; $2.8 million for the Auxilio contract and $79,332 to finish out First Student's contract. The next year, the district spent $3.9 million in total for transportation costs — $2.4 million on in-house busing and $1.5 million on Auxilio's contract. The district's in-house transportation services now represent the bulk of the schools' busing costs, Dimacchia said, and he estimated it could see further savings by moving all of its transportation in-house. "We're at the unfortunate disadvantage that when you have to subcontract out, you have to pay their prices," Dimacchia said. Adding to the schools' fleet to meet its charter and parochial students' needs would mean about 10 new buses with a $1.3 million price tag, he said. Additional drivers for those buses and added routes would be another $500,000 or so each year. Graham said it would be irresponsible for the district to not weigh the costs of fully providing its own transportation versus contracting out its non-public routes as it currently does. "We know long term that to do it ourselves, we would save money," Graham said, "but we would have to consider that upfront investment and where that falls in (our five-year forecast)." The school's costs — whether it lengthens its contract with Auxilio beyond the 2025-26 school year or not — ultimately includes not just busing its students who live within a 2-mile radius of their assigned school buildings, but also providing transportation to homeless students and children with disabilities. Both of those costs have increased exponentially since 2019, and Dimacchia predicts they will continue to rise. The McKinney-Vento costs, which is for homeless students, has more than doubled since 2019, Dimacchia said, to about $147,000 per year. The cost is named for the McKinney-Vento Act, which provides rights and services to homeless students, and defines homeless students at a federal level. Under that definition, children whose immediate families may bounce between relatives' homes, or who are living in a hotel or other impermanent place, are considered homeless — accounting for an estimated 200 students within the district. The district must bus those students from wherever they are staying — be that a hotel in Avon or a homeless shelter in Lorain — to their school. The schools' contracted special education transportation costs have also risen — up to about $1.2 million for fiscal year 2024 from about $234,000 in 2019, Dimacchia said. Those costs include contracts for orthotic minivans or small buses, drivers, monitors, aides or nurses. Like the McKinney-Vento Act, federal law requires the district to provide adequate transportation to students with disabilities, including contracting out transportation for the children to attend specialty schools in Cleveland, Mentor, Sandusky or Akron based on each student's needs. In other news The board of education unanimously approved eliminating a safety compliance officer position covered under the United Steelworkers Local 1104 through a reduction-in-force. The reduction will cut the schools' safety compliance officer positions from three to two, with Rob McFarland eliminated from the district's payroll. Safety compliance officers help with attendance initiatives, including home visits within the district. He also served a term as a 2nd Ward councilman from 2020-21. McFarland did not respond to a request for comment. Graham said McFarland was RIF'd based on seniority, and eliminating the position will save about $100,000 per year between the man's salary and benefits. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.