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Thursday, July 17, 2008

State To Loan District School Buses

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
      There will be buses for the Moriarty-Edgewood School District by the start of school, according to district superintendent Karen Couch.
    The Public Education Department will loan the district some buses from other districts, Couch said.
    "We will definitely have buses available," Couch said.
    The urgent need for buses came after Plant School Transportation, which has provided the majority of the district's buses, closed its doors a few months before school began. Ernie Sandoval, the Moriarty-Edgewood School District Transportation director, said that Plant School Transportation ran 43 buses last year and is down to 37 out of the district's 53 bus routes in all in the past school year.
    Finding a place to put the loaned buses and people to drive them is a challenge facing the district.
    The district is currently advertising for bus drivers and a plan to purchase a place to put the buses could be in the works.
    But the school board did not discuss its plans to solve the transportation issues at its July 14 meeting. At least, not in public.
    The board went into closed session for about an hour to discuss matters relating to Plant School Transportation, according to a motion made by board chairman Todd McCarty.
    The board returned and decided not to take action.
    'The district needs more time to consider items that have come to light," Couch said.
    When asked to elaborate after the meeting, Couch said that the district may be looking to purchase facilities to house buses.
    "We're examining all of our options," Couch said.
    The school board did take action, however, on a bid to drill a water well, despite some misgivings by board members.
    The winning bid, submitted by Hydrogeological Services, was for a well 400 feet deep, 18 inches across. According to the request, a three-phase submersible pump, capable of pumping 350 to 400 gallons per minute at that depth would be supplied by the schools, but the contractor would install and connect the water supply to the holding tank that supplies Moriarty High School.
    This was the second time the work was put out for bid. In June the school board rejected a set of bids for a smaller diameter hole in part because the bids came in too high. It was suggested at the time that the request may not have been clear enough, or that the companies simply missed the deadline.
    Part of the apprehension about the price came from the early estimate for the work. The district allocated just $45,000 for the work from the $18 million in bonds approved by voters in a Feb. 14 election.
    After clarifying the request, the winning bidder asked for about $83,500 to do the work, which is more than many of the bids the board had rejected last month. Before approving the bid, the board discussed the possibility of negotiating the bid down.
    Skip Laue, the district maintenance supervisor, mentioned that the district might to go to a smaller well to save money, but that suggestion wasn't acted upon. Laue also mentioned that the recent rain has helped with district watering needs. Without an additional well and rain, Laue said he may have to prioritize fields for watering.
    "We're all in agreement, we need a hole," McCarty said.
    Because of the time needed for the bidding process, McCarty indicated there may be some urgency to accepting a bid.
    "(The price of) steel is going to change in the next 60 days, I guarantee that," he said.
    Another anticipated price increase affecting the district is in the price of school lunches. Due to transportation costs and increases in food prices costs are expected to increase by 50 cents for adult meals and 25 cents for student meals.
    "This is one of the largest increases we've had to have at one time," said Cindy Sims, the director of personnel for the district.
   

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