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Waterbury board presses Durham School Services for fixes, demands monthly data and quarterly updates
Summary
The Waterbury Board of Education raised long-running service concerns with Durham School Services ahead of a proposed five-year contract, pressing the company for verifiable corrective data, a named local manager and monthly reporting until performance improves.
The Waterbury Board of Education spent the bulk of a special meeting pressing Durham School Services LP to show verifiable corrections to recurring school-bus problems before the company begins a new five-year contract.
Superintendent Dr. Schwarz and several commissioners described an increase in parent complaints this year and said the district had begun deducting fees from Durham for performance shortfalls. "We want the job to be done," Dr. Schwarz said, urging quarterly updates to the facilities committee and at least two workshops a year to track progress.
Board members recounted missed stops, multi-hour delays and unreturned calls. "I want to hear what you did about it," Commissioner Van Stone said, demanding that Durham supply not only incident counts but the corrective actions taken and evidence those fixes are sustained.
Durham executives acknowledged failures and outlined a package of changes. Steven Schmuck, vice president of operations for Durham's Northeast territory, apologized and said the company had reorganized its Connecticut operations, hired a dedicated region manager and planned a new general manager for the Waterbury location. Schmuck detailed investments in phone and telematics systems, new customer-service hires and training, and said the company had ordered 50 new buses with air conditioning and other upgrades.
Schmuck also described planned technology deployments: a new routing platform (Traversa) that he said will push live routing and student information to vehicle tablets, and a cloud-based camera/telematics system the company said will let supervisors view buses remotely and extract video without waiting for drivers to return to the yard.
Board members sought a firm reporting cadence. Durham committed to provide whatever reports the board requested and to attend in-person progress meetings; Superintendent Dr. Schwarz proposed an early-August update followed by monthly reports until officials agree to move to quarterly reviews.
Several commissioners signaled that the district will hold Durham accountable if performance does not improve, including discussing contract remedies. The transcript records no formal board vote on Durham's contract during the meeting.
An immediate next step the board set was an August progress update from Durham, with a plan to define specific monthly metrics and reporting formats before the school year begins.
