Mt. Lebanon discusses purchasing school bus
The Mt. Lebanon School Board discussed purchasing a small bus and hiring a driver to transport Parkway West, Gifted and Charter students in an effort to save the district money on outsourced transportation.
The district switched busing providers last month to ALC Busing, which saved the schools $75,000.
The district discussed taking this portion of the busing in house in an effort to save money and prevent creeping transportation costs.
“Their prices have inched up to the post that now it’s less for us to do it,” Director of Business Janice Klein said of transportation companies. “The bid was for $130,000 just for this piece of it. We could hire a person, a bus driver, with benefits. And this bus will last us. If we’re charged this fee over 10 years, we save a significant amount of money.”
The bus would be purchased for $61,277 from Myers Equipment Corporation and the purchase will be made from the district’s capital fund.
Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer said the purchase of the bus and the move to cover this portion of transportation in house is “part of an ongoing plan to reduce transportation costs.”
The school board also discussed increasing the cost of school lunches by 10 cents in the coming school year. The targeted school lunch price, said Klein, is $2.86. Lunches in Mt. Lebanon schools currently cost $2.69. The increase, which would not apply to breakfasts or students in the free or reduced lunch program, would partially make up for that difference and potentially net the district a minor profit of roughly $3,000 next year.
The school board will vote on both of these issues at the next meeting on June 19.