The Rochester school board will review a resolution at its meeting on Thursday, which may mean the framework of an agreement has been reached between the city school district and RTS on busing for the next school year.
But there are no details available about the contract being proposed – an $11.4 million, one-year deal – and it’s unclear whether the board will even approve it. Board President Van White says that he has not seen the contract, and that he has several questions about the costs.
The school board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street.
In April, RTS CEO Bill Carpenter announced that his organization would stop busing city school students when the agency’s contract with the district expired in June 2015. Carpenter cited several student-related fights at the RTS Transit Center downtown and a perception among RTS’ customers that the new facility is not safe.
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said at the time that the decision caught the district by surprise. Though an agreement has been reached to address summer school student busing, the bigger question has been busing for students in the 2015-2016 school year.
And any solution would most likely have to involve greatly reducing the number of students passing through the Transit Center.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2015.
I believe that the RTS CEO Bill Carpenter is to blame for this mess and should resign. RTS is supposed to serve the needs of the community. Security issues at the transit terminal should be addressed as just that…security issues and fixed. Causing difficulty in our children getting to schools is the last thing we need in this city.
The board of RTS should budget money for security and a termination package for Mr. Carpenter if he does not step down. He is punishing our children for his lack of management acumen.