MERIDIAN, Idaho — Students in Idaho's largest school district can expect a new ride to school next year.
The West Ada School District (WASD) will be switching its school bus provider to Durham School Services (DSS) in July.
For the past decade, West Ada had been using Cascade Student Transportation for its school bus services. But beginning in the fall of 2024, the district will use the same transportation provider as the Boise School District, which signed a 5-year contract with DSS in 2020.
Under state law, a school district is required to consider contract proposals for a new bus provider every five years.
A district establishes its standards dependent on transportation demands, and then determines if needs are met by bidding school bus service providers.
Following this step, under law - the district must accept the deal with the least-expensive proposal, given it meets the districts needs and requirements.
As part of the approximate $17 million per year deal, Durham must purchase 220 new buses to transport roughly 10,000 West Ada students to and from school every day.
West Ada's Chief Operating Officer Dr. David Reinhart said the fresh contract is a way to improve their safety and transportation services for students.
"We want safe and reliable service for our kids and for our families every day. We want to make it predictable," Dr. Reinhart said. "We think that with the change in contract, it gives us a fresh chance to look at how their systems of management work along with ours and establish new relationships."
Dr. Reinhart said current Cascade bus drivers will be given first priority for hiring with the change, so many of the current bus drivers will continue working in West Ada.
The new buses will also be equipped with some new technology. Starting next year, all West Ada School District buses will have live cameras available for school administration to review in the case of disciplinary issues.
"We'll continue to have bus badges for all of our elementary students, which we rolled out this year," Dr. Reinhart said. "Next year, we'll have bus badges for secondary students as well. So, they'll scan on and off the bus, letting the parent know when they got on the bus and when they got off the bus. That also increases safety if there's ever an accident, the police then automatically know who's on the bus and are able to generate reports."
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