The Triton Regional School Committee voted Jan. 8 to approve a five-year contract with NRT for regular-day student transportation, effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2030. Committee members said they approved the contract after negotiating new penalty language to address repeated late runs, no‑shows and poor communication by the vendor.

Why it matters: School leaders said recent cold-weather service failures left students waiting at stops and strained school staff and families. Committee members said the penalty provisions give the district ’teeth’ to hold the contractor accountable and expressed readiness to terminate the contract if performance does not improve.

The contract documents include the signed agreement, NRT’s bid submission and the district’s bid specifications. Under the terms discussed at the meeting, daily-run penalties can reach roughly half a daily run rate for late arrivals; a full-day penalty can be applied in certain circumstances; documented no‑shows carry a larger penalty (the superintendent cited a $974 ‘‘no-show’’ figure when explaining the math). The superintendent told the committee the per-run two‑tier rate used to compute penalties is $436 and that the contract raises the base starting hourly wage for drivers to $32 with incentives including an $8,000 retention bonus and support for CDL acquisition.

Superintendent (unnamed) said the financial and staffing incentives were part of negotiated changes and that NRT agreed to the penalty language after discussion with legal counsel and NRT leadership. He said the penalties are aggressive compared with many district contracts and acknowledged additional monitoring work will be required by staff.

“The penalties in this contract allow us and give us the tools to be able to hold them accountable,” the superintendent said. He warned the committee that, “I will cancel this contract in a heartbeat if what has happened lately keeps happening,” and said the district may reallocate funds to pay for a different vendor if problems persist.

Committee members described the situation as both a reputational and safety concern. One member said timeliness becomes a safety issue “when you have students standing on the side of the road” for unknown periods, particularly in poor weather. Several members said they favored keeping NRT as the lower-cost bidder while adding strict penalties because the local market has few reliable alternatives and other vendors may not be able to attract drivers quickly.

The contract remains subject to standard performance reviews and a formal penalty appeal and reduction process. The superintendent said the district will work with school offices to document late arrivals and will press NRT for more robust parent and district-facing tracking technology; a parent-facing tracking app and improved vehicle time-stamping are planned to be discussed at a vendor meeting the district scheduled for the following week.

Votes and next steps: A committee member moved to approve the contract as presented; another member seconded. The motion passed by voice vote. The superintendent and district staff will be responsible for enforcing the penalty provisions and reporting back to the committee on compliance and any further service disruptions.

Background: The superintendent explained the procurement followed Massachusetts procurement requirements for contracts over $100,000 under Chapter 30B; Triton solicited sealed bids and awarded to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder. NRT was the low bidder; the only other responsive bidder would have cost the district roughly $160,000 more per year on paper, the superintendent said. The district and committee discussed the risks and costs of declaring NRT non‑responsible and moving to the next bidder or rebidding the service.

The contract package and the penalty schedule were added to the district’s BoardDocs record following the Jan. 8 meeting. The superintendent said staff will track penalties through school office reporting tied to vehicle time stamps and the vendor’s tracking portal.

Ending: The committee approved the contract with the added penalties and directed the superintendent and business office to enforce the terms and report back if service failures continue.