The contract with the school transportation provider is expected to improve on-time arrivals and allow internal transportation staff to return to core duties such as training and maintenance, as the district has struggled to fully staff their routes, Chief Operations Officer Damian Viltz said at the May 5 agenda review meeting.
Why it's happening
For the last two to three years, the district has struggled to fully staff its transportation routes, often starting the school year with 30 to 40 routes left without a permanently assigned driver, Viltz said.
In these instances, transportation supervisors, dispatchers and mechanics have had to step in and drive routes themselves—juggling three-hour morning and evening shifts on top of their regular duties that are essential to operations, including fleet maintenance and training, Viltz said.
“The impacts are that [students are] late getting to school or getting dropped off at home, especially when we have to double up routes,” he said. “Also on the staff, they're not fully engaged in their primary job.”
In January, the district sought to hire 50 bus drivers and 15 trainees, Community Impact previously reported. A district representative couldn’t be reached by press time to confirm how many bus drivers were hired since the event.
The details
If trustees approve the GoldStar Transit contract at a future meeting, the agreement would last until July 2030, providing buses and drivers for 50 to 130 routes, per the contract.
Previously, the district signed a contract of the same scope in December 2019, according to district documents.
What trustees are saying
However, trustee Sonya Jones raised questions about the contract’s cost-effectiveness, asking if the district could save money by using its own buses while only contracting drivers from the vendor.
“We have buses, all we need is just drivers,” Jones said. “Instead of their buses and paying for their overhead and their costs, ... can you ask them what the cost would be if they only provided drivers and not their buses?”
Viltz said the district’s spare buses are reserved for athletic events, field trips or as backups. Without significantly expanding the current fleet—by as many as 80 to 100 buses—he said the district shouldn’t eliminate the vendor’s buses from the plan.
Zooming out
Meanwhile, neighboring school district Katy ISD also outsourced drivers from GoldStar Transit to combat hiring shortages through a five-year contract for $2.66 million contract to fill 30 bus routes with four spare buses in February.
Job postings from Houston-area school districts and GoldStar Transit show the company offers the highest starting bus driver wages aside from Cy-Fair ISD, which raised its hourly rate from $19.19 to $23 in November, Community Impact reported.
FBISD’s starting wage for bus drivers is $20.41, slightly below GoldStar, according to job postings. Community Impact previously reported that wages are a determining factor for bus drivers who could seek more lucrative wages with their commercial driver’s license.
Next steps
FBISD administrators will determine if cost-saving alternatives—such as using only contracted drivers—could be written into the contract, Viltz said.
Officials will present the proposal for board approval at the May 19 board meeting, according to district documents.
