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District officials say Salter/Beacon Mobility failures left students stranded; leasing vans and alternate vendors under review
Summary
Superintendent and student representatives described ongoing transportation failures by contractor Salter (now Beacon Mobility): late or absent drivers, poor communication, and multi‑hour student delays. The district is exploring vendor replacement, a request‑for‑proposals process, and leasing activity vans for non‑home‑to‑school trips.
District leaders told the Manchester‑Essex Regional School Committee on Nov. 5 that persistent failures by their transportation contractor have left students waiting, disrupted after‑school activities and forced staff to explore short‑ and medium‑term workarounds.
The superintendent described a pattern of service breakdowns including drivers not showing up, drivers calling in late and poor vendor communication after Salter was acquired by Beacon Mobility. “We have a contract; they can’t provide the services in that contract,” the superintendent said, adding that the district has options to change vendors but would likely need to run a request‑for‑proposal process before transitioning services.
At the student report, a senior recounted being left in Westford/Westwood for three to four hours when a bus failed to pick students up for return trips from activities. Committee discussion noted that activity vans (leased by another district) can be used for after‑school trips but not for home‑to‑school transport; staff said they are exploring leasing a small fleet of activity vans for athletic and program trips as a mitigation measure.
Finance staff reported that as of Sept. 30 the district had not paid Salter for services but had since made the first payments in October while negotiating potential financial offsets for missed service. District staff said they are also pursuing local vendor options and monitoring a pipeline of drivers in training that could ease shortages in the coming weeks.
The committee requested continued updates on communications improvements and vendor negotiations; no formal action to terminate the contract was recorded at the Nov. 5 meeting.
