North Penn School District Transportation Department Budget Executive Summary
The Transportation Department strives to provide exceptional service to all students that reside within the 44 square miles encapsulating North Penn School District. The goal of the department is to provide safe and efficient transportation to the students, doing so with a smile on our face. This includes all 18 North Penn schools, and all non-public schools within a 10-mile radius of the district boundaries. All bus drivers of the department undergo a rigorous training period, including 14 hours of classroom instruction, six hours of behind-the-wheel training and must pass written and road tests in order to obtain their Commercial Driver’s License with a School Bus Endorsement. For the past eight years, the Transportation budget has remained relatively stable. This stability in the budget can be attributed to many factors, including consolidation of Non-public School Bus Routes and the reduction of district-owned vehicles, the transition of Public School Bus Routes to a contractor, a reduction in the North Penn vehicle fleet and the transition to a payroll system to a system based on Daily Schedules verified by GPS. All of these cost saving initiatives are happening as the cost to transport a North Penn Student is above the state average. The department is efficient with the resources that it has available, but there are opportunities to be more resourceful with regards to the district-owned fleet, strategic routing, further utilizing a bus contractor and better managing staffing costs. There is a substantial difference in the cost of transporting public school students using district-owned transportation versus utilizing a busing contractor. The average cost to operate a district owned vehicle is roughly $70,000. To operate a contracted bus through First Student, the cost is roughly $45,000. As full- time, benefitted drivers retire or leave their job for any other reason, First Student is offered the right of first refusal. In the current school year, First Student provides 16 Public School buses, totaling a savings
- f about $400,000. First Student also services all of the non-public schools, a total of 41 schools and 37
buses, which results in a savings of $925,000 per year, as opposed to using district-owned busing. With the acceptance of the Driving PA Forward Grant money, the district will decrease our fuel and maintenance costs over time. Additionally, a portion of the requirement to fully comply with the grant is that for each bus purchased, one diesel bus must be decommissioned. Purchasing new buses and decommissioning old ones will reduce the average age of our fleet, currently 12.6 years. In addition to the financial benefits of propane, such as reduced fuel and maintenance costs, it also burns clean. By reducing the overall greenhouse emissions of our fleet, students, staff and the entire North Penn community will reap the environmental benefits, increasing the quality of life of all of the residents. Propane buses also run quieter, decreasing bad behavior on the bus. The transition from a time clock to a system based on driver schedules verified by GPS has shown the district great savings. Drivers and aides are now paid based upon their official schedule, which is verified by GPS at the beginning of the school year. The SkyBitz GPS system allows us to easily document and verify driver hours. Skybitz also allows for the monitoring of engine idling, posted speed notifications, engine diagnostic issues and fuel consumption, all data which allow us to analyze and make necessary changes to reduce spending. The transportation department is examining ways to integrate GPS with apps for parents to track the location of their children’s buses. All Public school buses, including First Student buses, are equipped with video/ audio surveillance
- systems. These tools allow the bus ride to be safer and more secure. In the event of a behavior issue or
vandalism, the camera provides valuable evidence for administrators to use for discipline. Cameras also provide a deterrent for this type of behavior. The camera systems have proven to be very valuable in instances of vehicular accidents as well.