Cape school board hires new transportation firm

The Cape Girardeau School District will be relying on a new company for transportation next school year.

The board authorized a contract with Robinson Transport Inc. for transportation services for the 2015-2016 school year, with an option to renew for 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, plus two additional years.

Robinson, based in Harrisburg, Illinois, submitted the lowest bid proposal of $1,015,464. That is an increase of $107,706 over the current school year's rate of $907,758. The rate includes a fleet largely consisting of 2016 buses, assistant superintendent for administrative services Neil Glass said. No manager or storage facility plans are in place yet.

"We've been experiencing a lot of breakdowns," he said, so he's optimistic service will be better.

The cost also includes regular transportation and new surveillance cameras on the buses. Transportation for extracurricular activities on a per-hour basis is incorporated into the contract.

The district will have the option to add Wi-Fi to the new buses, board president Kyle McDonald said. He said he hoped adding Wi-Fi to a couple of the buses would enable students to do homework while traveling.

The school district runs 23 buses, with two alternates.

First Student, the current provider, beat Robinson's bid in 2011, the last time bids went out.

"This time [Robinson] sharpened their pencils a little bit" and were able to submit a lower bid, Glass said. First Student's bid for next year came in at $1,057,050. A third vendor, Illinois Central, bid $1,142,260.

Glass said the bus drivers having unionized since the last time transportation bids went out also contributed to the higher bids.

The rate for Robinson will increase to $1,045,928 for 2016-2017 and to $1,077,306 for 2017-2018.

In other business, the board:

• Approved the K-12 curriculum for social studies in the district.
• Authorized a contract with Charter for primary rate interface and direct inward dial phone services, including long distance, with a cost of $13,380 annually, a decrease from what the district is paying now. A block of 200 direct inward dial numbers is included in the monthly cost of $1,115, but that price does not include the 21 dedicated direct inward dial numbers that will have to be transferred from AT&T to the school's main lines.
• Approved a bid from AT&T for regular and long-distance phone service on landlines.

Phone service will cost the district $27 a month per line for a monthly total cost of $1,323.

Long distance will be at a minimum cost of $600 annually. The service includes a minimum monthly fee of $50, with a overage charge of $.03 per minute. Five thousand minutes are included in the plan; information from the district says it averages 500 long-distance minutes per month on landlines.

• Approved SomethingCool.com as the vendor for network switches for all the district schools, with a cost of $200,574.82. The existing switches are about 5 years old and need to be upgraded if the current E-Rate funding is not received. E-Rate funding provides discounts to assist schools and libraries obtain affordable telecommunications and Internet access.
• Approved a bid from Lan-Tel, pending E-Rate funding, for network structured cabling and installing wireless networking access points at all schools in the district at a cost of $176,812.47 for next budget year.
• Approved CDW-G's bid for wireless network equipment at all district schools at a cost of $231,698.20 for next budget year pending E-Rate funding. This will allow the district to upgrade the entire network at once and expand coverage for the 1:1 initiative.
• Heard from the Community Teachers Association its first trivia night recently raised about $1,000 for scholarships.
• Congratulated the cast, crew and directors of the recent production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

kwebster@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO