David Pulsipher, the district’s new transportation and operations coordinator, introduced himself to the Danvers School Committee and described a short-term plan to improve reliability and contain the district’s special-education transportation costs.

Pulsipher told the committee he began work October 28 and said he has been “driving a bus” to learn operations firsthand. He said the district’s out-of-district special-education transportation need has grown “quadrupled over the last several years,” and that contracted vendor rates produce steep cost increases compared with in-house vans. Pulsipher said a vendor checklist, an internal complaint log and driver rosters will be used to monitor vendors and improve compliance.

The nut graf: Pulsipher framed his immediate priorities as threefold — improve vendor oversight, recruit drivers from the Danvers community to staff district- or town-owned vans, and document standard operating procedures so the district can consolidate routes and reduce contracting costs.

Pulsipher summarized steps already taken: a district survey that received roughly 96 responses after multiple pushes, initial vendor compliance checks, and outreach to human resources for background‑check processes. He said the town’s DPW currently has 10 vans on its lot, with four running and several others in varying readiness; the district hopes to use more locally based vehicles and drivers to offset high outside-vendor prices.

Committee members asked about the job market for drivers and whether Pulsipher would seek inter-district collaborations. He said driver recruitment will focus on Danvers residents and neighborhood outreach, and that he is coordinating with a local consortium to pool routes and explore cost-sharing with neighboring districts. Pulsipher and business manager Pam Grama (who has worked with the consortium) said the consortium work could yield consolidated routes and some savings.

Pulsipher said he aims to hire some drivers by February and expects to publish standard operating procedures by spring to clarify how out-of-district runs are bid and managed. He also said he will keep a running complaint log so repeated vendor problems can be addressed in contract discussions.

The committee asked Pulsipher to return with updates at budget time; he and staff said those updates will feed into FY26 planning and vendor negotiations.