Board approves three-year, multimillion-dollar contract with Durham for student transportation
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Summary
The CCSD 59 Board approved a three-year student transportation contract with Durham School Services after hearing a vendor presentation about safety, hiring plans and parent communications; board members pressed the vendor on driver recruitment and tracking apps.
Community Consolidated School District 59’s Board of Education voted to approve a three-year contract with Durham School Services to provide student transportation after a presentation and extended questions from board members.
Mohsen, the district’s business-services presenter, told the board the district moved to a quality-based vendor selection process to emphasize reliability and training rather than simply accepting the lowest bid. Durham’s Michael Boettcher, director of business development for Illinois, described Durham as a national provider that maintains a large fleet and an extensive safety and training program. "Our goal is to reduce risk in every facet of transportation," Boettcher said, describing state-certified instructors, third-party testing and child-check procedures that require drivers or monitors to walk the bus before leaving the vehicle.
Board members focused questions on operational details: how parents would track buses, whether the district would retain incumbent drivers, and how many hires Durham had secured. Boettcher said Durham uses parent apps such as Bus Zone (which provides push notifications) and planned local hiring events; he told the board about an initial recruitment event that drew roughly 30 applications and several more events scheduled, while indicating the district needs "about over 70" drivers to meet projected demand. Mohsen added that the district and vendor intend to pursue efficiencies in routing to reduce deadhead time.
After discussion the board moved and approved the contract by roll-call vote. The motion was passed during the meeting; board members asked the vendor to continue outreach on staffing and to provide operational updates as the district transitions to the new provider.
The vote finalized one of the meeting’s most substantive decisions; the board also approved multiple routine items later in the agenda. Durham committed to additional recruitment, local hiring events and a customer-facing dispatch team to support parents if apps fail. The district will monitor staffing levels and operational performance during the transition.
