Brockton superintendent outlines transportation audit findings and short-term cost controls; district spent about $11 million so far this year

Superintendent Dr. Tilghani gave the School Committee’s safety, security and transportation subcommittee a detailed progress update on March 11, describing audit findings, short-term fixes and planned bids intended to reduce transportation costs and improve safety oversight.

The superintendent said the district is currently transporting 839 students to neighboring schools (including New Heights, Trinity, Norfolk and Bristol Aggie, and Cardinal Spellman), has 1,593 students receiving door-to-door transportation (up 332 since November), 76 out-of-district transport students (up 1), and 430 students covered under the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness (up 11). She also said 8,596 students use the district’s yellow buses. The district has spent about $11,000,000 on transportation to date and shows approximately $10.8–11.0 million against a revised $16,000,000 budget that includes a recent $6,000,000 city appropriation.

The superintendent said a review of 253 vendor files found only 90 (now 91) active vendors that had executed letters of agreement, rates and certificates of insurance uploaded into Munis; the district is updating expiring insurance certificates and performing random safety checks. Security director Rob Jackson has been conducting random on-site vendor checks to ensure drivers match the documentation vendors supplied.

The presentation summarized an invoice audit of the district’s largest vendor: over a seven-month period the district paid roughly $276,000 to transport 11 students on nine routes and found instances of overbilling (including three students billed for days they did not attend) and misspelled names that complicated tracking. The transportation team is auditing vendor invoices vendor-by-vendor and notifying vendors of identified overbilling; the superintendent said the district is considering penalties for overbilling going forward.

The district described an example where rebidding clustered students who attended the same out-of-district placement. Previously the district was effectively paying $1,937.66 per day to transport seven students to the same placement 20 miles away; after competitively rebidding into two routes (one single-student route because of an individual need, and one six-student route) the daily rate dropped to $349, saving roughly $1,600 per day and an estimated $31,000 per month for that cluster. The superintendent said the district is prioritizing rebids of the highest-cost routes first.

Other steps described: continuing to upload and track vendor agreements in Munis, updating expiring certificates of insurance, requiring competitive electronic bids (Microsoft forms now used to gather responses), deploying central-office staff and outside consultants (OpenArchitects and an expert from First Student) to improve data systems and operational processes, and posting for an administrative assistant to match invoices to attendance records.

The superintendent noted existing bus tablets (35 buses equipped) that can provide GPS, turn-by-turn navigation, time tracking and student-scan capabilities; 24 of the tablets are actively reporting. The full software package for tablets would cost about $18 per bus per month, and new buses added after the initial rollout would require about $1,000 hardware per bus. The district is considering the parent tracking app and student-scan functionality for safety and attendance verification.

Committee members raised questions about driver absences, chartering and parking of district buses, the feasibility of shifting tiers (for example, moving the Barrett Russell pre-K tier to free up small district buses), and whether the district could limit high-school bus service or offer alternative passes. The superintendent said driver absences include 3–5 long-term leaves at any time but acknowledged repeat absences are being tracked and that bargaining negotiations and potential incentives are being explored to improve attendance. Members reiterated that cameras, ID checks for substitute drivers, and stronger vendor verification should be standard practices.

The superintendent said some transportation costs are statewide and structural, and that superintendents are advocating at the state level for higher transportation reimbursements; she also said the district is exploring internal budget offsets to help cover an anticipated gap this year while pursuing the operational savings described.

No formal action was taken during the update; the superintendent said the district would continue audits, rebid high-cost routes, expand competitive bids, improve data integration (VersaTrans–Munis alignment), and include transportation improvements in next year’s budget and formal bid process.