Outsourcing Bay City Schools Bus Driving Doesn’t Sit Well with Current Drivers

With Bay City schools looking to possibly outsource school bus driving to private companies, current employees of the district who drive buses staged a protest Tuesday, April 12 at Handy Middle School.

The announcement came last week by Superintendent Stephen Bigelow, who said the district will accept bids from third parties for transportation services in an effort to lower costs. For the next school year, the district has just under $3 million for transportation. Bigelow mentioned that the current drivers, who are unionized through United Steelworkers, would also be able to place a bid.

However, those drivers say they only learned of the plan in late March. They also say a private company can’t offer the personal touch they provide, seeing kids get on and off their buses everyday, for years for some of the drivers.

Privatizing the department would impact 24 drivers, plus dispatchers and mechanics. The transportation recommendations will be presented at the May 2 school board meeting and voted on May 9.