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Committee approves First Student transportation contract with allowance for superintendent and counsel to finalize minor changes
Summary
The School Committee approved a contract template with First Student for 2026–27, while discussing union memoranda on driver seniority, service‑level concerns (breakdown response and spare buses), ridership registration and insurance language; committee authorized the superintendent and legal team to sign non‑substantive changes.
The Smithfield School Committee voted to approve a draft contract with transportation vendor First Student on Monday and authorized the superintendent and the district's legal team to finalize non‑substantive language prior to execution.
Staff explained the negotiated draft would preserve district oversight of routes and stop locations (section referenced on page four, section 6.4) while staff and First Student continue to reconcile insurance and other contractor language. The committee heard an update that the Teamsters and Lincoln reached a memorandum of agreement that preserves seniority and routes for some drivers if they transfer, and staff said some Lincoln drivers may join the system next year.
Several bus drivers and committee members pressed for clearer service‑level expectations: how quickly a replacement vehicle can respond to a breakdown, whether a spare bus might be staged locally (with a potential $125,000 annual cost if a bus were permanently held in reserve), and how schools will operationally track newly registered riders in the first weeks of school. Drivers noted practical constraints at multi‑bus stops and challenged staff to ensure on‑site school coordination in the early days of implementation.
"When a bus breaks down, you need to get that bus and those students as quickly as possible," a driver said, urging preplanning on nearby replacement vehicles. Staff said they are running multiple reminders to families to register for ridership, that data uploads are due in June, and that they have already seen an afternoon influx of registrations (speakers referenced registration figures near 1,000 and 1,064 in the record; duplicates possible).
Committee members asked for continued follow‑up on insurance language and timetable for routes; the motion approved the contract with an express allowance for the superintendent and legal counsel to amend non‑critical items without returning the matter to the full committee. The motion passed by voice vote.
