Dana Cruishek, Beverly Public Schools’ director of transportation, gave the Finance and Facilities committee an annual overview of routes, riders, drivers and the district’s fleet on May 28.

Cruishek said the district’s general‑education transportation serves 1,235 students, including “47 students from the Saints Academy,” with 149 special‑education riders transported within Beverly and 31 transported out of district. McKinney‑Vento out‑of‑district transportation accounts for 105 students. He described current route counts as: elementary — nine general‑education routes and 17 special‑education routes (including McEwen School); middle school — 12 general and 10 special; high school — nine general and two special.

The presentation focused on three operational areas: a new consolidated out‑of‑district contract, driver recruitment and training, and the electric‑bus fleet.

Why it matters: the district transports students to both in‑district schools and specialized out‑of‑district programs that can be costly on a per‑student basis. Consolidating some out‑of‑district runs through a cooperative bid could reduce the per‑district share of long, small‑load trips.

Cruishek and Finance Director Emma Pugliese described a new North Shore Education Collaborative (NEC) consolidated out‑of‑district transportation contract awarded to a single vendor (identified in the meeting as NICS Transportation). Cruishek said the vendor will handle out‑of‑district routing for multiple member districts and Beverly will remain responsible for vendor payments. Pugliese said the NEC business manager’s preliminary estimate projects savings of “approximately a hundred thousand dollars in the first year.”

Cruishek described how cost sharing creates savings: instead of funding a vehicle for one Beverly student bound for a particular school, multiple districts can share the same vehicle and split the cost. He noted the final per‑student cost will fluctuate month to month as student placements and counts change, and the district will track monthly actuals against the prior fiscal year as the basis for evaluating savings.

On staffing and recruitment, Cruishek said Beverly currently has 18 drivers with CDL qualifications, 11 van drivers and 19 monitors. He described an internal “pipeline” approach to grow the workforce from monitors to 7D (minibus) licenses and from there to CDLs. Cruishek said three staffers are actively training for CDLs and described the required training and certification process, including the state driving test and first‑aid requirements.

Fleet and electrification: Cruishek said the district currently operates five full‑size electric buses and expects five additional, grant‑funded full‑size electric buses to arrive early in the 2025–26 school year, plus three mini electric buses the following year (one with a full‑wheelchair capability). He noted early battery and charging issues have been largely resolved; one full battery replacement had been done under warranty and “It’s a $75,000 battery for a full size bus. We didn’t pay a nickel of it.”

Cruishek explained that Highland (the fleet partner on the electric vehicles) manages charging and can sell power back to the grid under vehicle‑to‑grid arrangements; the district’s current Highland buses were charged by Highland and Beverly did not pay for that charging. He said the district will own new buses and infrastructure (with grant funding), which will change the cost structure in future years.

Operations and safety: Cruishek described the inspection cadence — an annual inspection and quarterly service inspections — and praised district maintenance and registry inspectors for allowing rapid repairs when parts are verified. He also described a pilot of an electronic boarding pass system through BusRite: “When the student comes on the bus, they scan that tag. We know that student’s on the bus,” he said, adding the district will trial the system with summer school runs before wider deployment.

Contract oversight and next steps: Cruishek said Beverly will remain responsible for vendor payments and retain the contractual right to solicit other bids if a better price is demonstrable. Pugliese said the district will provide out‑of‑district student start and end locations over the summer and continue monthly monitoring to assess realized savings. Both emphasized that cost‑sharing benefits depend on actual shared routing and daily head counts.

Ending: The committee asked for monthly monitoring and agreed to receive updates as the NEC consolidated contract begins and as the district adds electric vehicles and the BusRite pilot expands.