Early morning sunlight May 12, 2021, illuminates a school bus at the Mid Columbia Bus Co. bus barn outside Pendleton. Now the sun is setting on the relation between the bus company and the Pendleton School District, which on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, approved a bid for an Ohio company to provide school bus service.

PENDLETON — The Pendleton School District’s 40-year relationship with Mid Columbia Bus Co. is coming to an end.

The Pendleton School Board on Monday, Feb. 14, approved a bid from First Student, a Cincinnati, Ohio, school bus company, to take over the district student transportation services for the next five years. Midco, the only other bidder for the contract, was the runner-up.

Michelle Jones, the district’s director of business services, said this was the first time Pendleton had put its school bus contract up for bid. Districts aren’t required to solicit bidders for transportation contracts, but Jones said school officials felt it was something they owed their various constituencies.

“I think we have a duty to our stakeholders, to our parents and our students to make sure that we are providing the best service to our families,” she said. “And we wanted to go out to bid to make sure that what we were offering was the best that we could do and I think we found that we couldn’t justify that by just continuing to renew contracts and we needed to see what else was available for our families.”

The district on Nov. 17 issued a request for proposal for its school bus services. Potential bidders would be evaluated on their qualifications, financial stability and their service and performance, among other factors. Following the Jan. 5 bid deadline, Jones said a panel composed of herself, Superintendent Chris Fritsch and Matt Yoshioka, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, evaluated the proposals.

In the cover letter attached to its bid, First Student got off to an inauspicious start.

Timothy Wulf, First Student’s director of business development, wrote in bold font that his company was unlikely to be the lowest bidder because of the costs associated with dealing with the bus driver shortage.

But Wulf then pivoted to what First Student could offer the district, including a new bus facility.

“As the District is fully aware of, a bus facility is more than challenging to find in Pendleton,” he wrote. “However, we did! We found an excellent facility and would like to offer it to the District to control the lease. This alone, is worth making a change.”

Wulf went on to summarize First Student’s bid: 28 new buses plus eight older models, a driver salary range of $18.71 to $23.32 per hour with a $500 signing bonus, an “optimization study” meant to reduce ride times and possibly reduce routes and new technology, including a school bus tracker app for parents.

First Student stated it could provide its services for $795,831 per year plus rate based fees that vary depending on bus usage.

The Pendleton School District started contracting with Midco in 1982, but the company’s roots in Eastern Oregon extend further than that. Midco began its life as Flatt’s Trucking Service, a mail and freight transportation business, before expanding into the school bus business when it bid on a contract for the Condon School District in 1956. Midco eventually expanded its operations to include districts all over rural Oregon and Idaho. In 2015, the Flatt family sold Midco to Landmark Student Transportation, a Canadian school bus company.

Rough patch

But recent years haven’t always gone smoothly for Midco.

Pendleton parents frequently complained of late buses, long routes and unchecked bullying on the buses. Some of those complaints filtered up to the school board level, where Midco representatives attributed the shortcomings to a nationwide bus driver shortage. Last summer, Midco attempted to revamp its recruitment strategy by upping bus driver wages.

Chuck Moore, Midco’s region vice president, leaned on Pendleton and Midco’s shared history in the company’s bid cover letter.

“We are confident that as an Oregon based company with local knowledge, we have the ability to be more efficient, responsive and will swiftly be able to identify and make any changes or adjustments needed,” he wrote. “Our enthusiastic staff is thrilled to continue to work closely with administration personnel and is committed to continue to build relationships with each Principal, Secretary and Teacher.”

Midco’s bid was $645,721 per year plus rate based fees.

Several Midco employees and community members used the public comment section of the meeting to defend the company, highlighting how much they enjoyed working with the district and questioning why the district didn’t consult with drivers or parents before making the decision. Midco administrators struck a bittersweet note, thanking the district for working with them and expressing hope that they will work together again in the future.

Ultimately, the public comments didn’t deter the school board from unanimously approving the First Student bid. First Student will take over bus services on July 1, ahead of the 2022-23 school year.

Although First Student’s bid promises the district a bus facility, Fritsch said in an interview after the meeting that the terms of the deal are still being negotiated.

Another district moves on from Midco

Pendleton isn’t the first district to drop Midco as its school bus provider.

The Stanfield School District transitioned from Mid Columbia Bus Co. to providing its transportation services in-house at the start of the 2021-22 school year. Superintendent Beth Burton said she appreciated Midco’s years of service to Stanfield, but her district felt like internalizing bus operations was the best move for students.

“After penciling it out and looking at the flexibility we would gain to run our own transportation department, it just made more sense and it’s gone really well for us this year,” she said. “We have not had complaints. We’ve been able to schedule things without having to consider Hermiston and Umatilla and other districts and what they’re doing. We’ve been able to focus on our own programs and what makes sense for us and that’s been super refreshing.”

As part of building out its own transportation department, Stanfield acquired two 14-passenger buses, two 77-passenger buses and an 80-passenger bus. To operate the buses, Stanfield hired four drivers and a transportation supervisor who is certified to drive and maintain the buses. The move hasn’t come without tradeoffs — Stanfield no longer transports elementary students who live within one mile of campus or secondary students who live within a mile-and-a-half — but Burton said the district is happy with its decision.