MILTON — The Santa Rosa County School Board has renewed a five-year contract with a school bus company despite concerns raised by some drivers.
School Board members on Thursday approved a second contract with Durham Student Services that will cost about $7.9 million per year after asking a few questions and receiving assurances from Superintendent of Schools Tim Wyrosdick and Durham executives that students were safe on the buses.
“I’m not a parent or a grandparent in this district, but I’m a parent and I’m a grandparent,” said Tom McBride, a senior vice president at Durham. “I would not lie to you about the safety of these buses.”
Questions about bus safety and treatment of employees were thrown into the spotlight last week at a forum sponsored by a union brought in to represent about 60 percent of the drivers.
At the forum and again at Thursday’s meeting, the drivers said tire treads on some buses are too worn, mold is growing on the ceilings and workers aren’t allowed to take sick days because Durham didn’t have enough substitute drivers.
“We protect the children. We’re willing to put ourselves between anybody that comes on that bus,” said driver Vera Nowling-Driggers. “ … But there’s things we cannot protect them from. We can’t protect them from the mold on the ceiling. We’re not trained to remove it.”
Another driver, Diane Bence, who is working most closely with the Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., urged the School Board to delay voting on the contract.
“We ask you today to not rush into any contract without investigating the issues before you,” Bence said.
However, some drivers said they had no problems.
“I feel like a lot of the complaints that you are receiving is unfounded,” Candace Moyers told the board. “I think that they have a hidden agenda. I think that anyone who does not want to be a Teamster is harassed.”
A longtime mechanic also assured board members that the buses were safe and problems are handled in a timely manner.
Wyrosdick agreed.
“I will readily attest to you that Santa Rosa County students are safely transported,” Wyrosdick said. “I absolutely believe that the protocol we’ve established as an oversight of Durham and the safety procedures that we’ve put into place and have monitored from Durham transportation services is there.”
McBride and Robb Bauman, Durham’s regional manager for the Southeast, said they’ve been looking into the issues since they were brought up at last week’s union forum.
“We have stayed up plenty of nights reviewing the issues that were raised,” Bauman said.
According to McBride, since the concerns initially aired, they’ve found several complaints to be valid and subsequently let go at least two employees.
He said they still are working through the list and wouldn’t comment on anything they hadn’t confirmed.
“I want to deal in absolute fact. I don’t want to deal with emotion,” McBride said. “ … I really need to look at these things in black and white.”
Wyrosdick promised board members and visitors at the meeting that a full review will be conducted and the results will be available to the public.
“Whatever concerns are there, all right, we have addressed and will continue to address,” Wyrosdick said. “Secondly, the information that has been provided here this evening, I can’t validate. Many of it I absolutely know is in error, but whatever is not in error that we haven’t been able to validate we’ll certainly check into.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.