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Specifically, the drivers alleged that there aren't enough mechanics at the West Hartford base and that two-way radios are not performing up to standards. Drivers also mentioned concerns with where busses were being housed in addition to busses running late in the morning when dropping kids off at school.
"Our contract with First Student says that busses need to be housed in West Hartford,' West Hartford bus driver Wanda Cobbs said. "Right now, we have probably about 10-15 busses that are being housed in Hartford and their runs start out of Hartford. It's very chaotic. They have some drivers coming from Waterbury, who come in (and) don't know the route. The kids are being dropped off to school very late."
According to information presented by the drivers, First Student has a contingency of 10 percent of spare drivers on site, but many are based out of town.
Despite these concerns, however, there is only so much the Board of Education can do. Board chairman Terry Schmitt said that the board could only act upon concerns with the actual busses, not necessarily the terms of the actual contract with First Student. This is the town's first year with First Student.
"If the bus drivers are here because they don't like their contract, the board of education has nothing to do with that," Schmitt said. "The contract is negotiated by the town, not by us. We don't control that at all. If, on the other hand, what they're complaining about is that things aren't working like in the busses, that is something that we manage and we heard in the financial report."
During the presentation of the financial report, board member Clare Kindall mentioned that in fact, the board of education has capitalized on liquid damage clauses
"About 90 percent of it has been technical difficulties in their (placing) of video cameras on busses," she explained. "At least at our last meeting, we were looking at close to $430,000 in liquidating damages. Given that it's a $5 million dollar contract, close to $300,000 a month, that is substantial damages. I will say it certainly goes towards very good contract management, but it also does raise the questions that were raised here tonight during the public comment period about what's happening."
Schmitt praised the contract as well, but noted it is an additional concern that improvements have not been made since September.
The reason you have those kinds of things written in your contract is to enforce compliance, basically," he said. "The company's there to make money. If you're taking money away from them, you ought to want to fix the problems. It's an incentive. Every year in September there are all sorts of problems. They lose some money in September. It's supposed to get better. And from what I'm hearing, there are still fairly significant problems.
