Vote To Outsource Transportation Leaves Penn Hills Drivers Without Jobs

Close To 100 Employees Laid Off By School District
Vote To Outsource Transportation Leaves Penn Hills Drivers Without Jobs

POSTED: 11:42 am EDT May 13, 2011
UPDATED: 12:41 pm EDT May 13, 2011

PENN HILLS, Pa. -- Nearly 100 transportation employees in the Penn Hills School District are being laid off as part of a plan to change how the district gets students to and from school.

At a meeting on Thursday night, school board members voted 6 to 2 to outsource transportation to First Student International beginning July 1.

The district said the move to outsource and sell their equipment would save $3 million the first year and about $1.5 million annually after that.

"People have been very upset. The not knowing has probably been worse than anything else. Not knowing where your life is going, not knowing where you're going to be be next week, next year, whatever. Now that we do know, it doesn't make it any easier," bus driver Paul Randour said.

Drivers told Channel 4 Action news they could apply for jobs with First Student, but it would involve a pay cut and loss of health care and benefits.

A district spokeswoman said the starting pay for 48 drivers would be higher with First Student than they're making now.

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While the decision to outsource the transportation department was regrettable, it was a decision that had to be made.

Imagine the uproar if the board had voted to keep transportation, but then had to furlough more teachers or cut more programs. The business of the District is education, not transportation.

I found the behavior of the would-be candidates shameful. Every one of them would have had to vote to outsource if they had been sitting at the front table, or they would have had to vote for a tax increase.

As I understand it, a 1 mill increase generates about 1 million dollars, a 3 mill tax increase to keep the transportation department. And that 3 mill increase would not keep an extra teacher. Drivers or teachers, tough call isn’t it.

The people at the meeting who applauded Mr. Bailey for voting no have, either a very short memory, or selective memory. He has been a fervent supporter of Mr. Libertos cost cutting measures, and I suspect that if the election were not on the doorstep of this vote, he too, would have voted to end services with the drivers. It was very easy for him to vote no when he knew that the resolution would pass.

On that same note, I applaud Messer’s Zacchia and Kuhn. With the election less than a week away, these two men voted for the community as a whole, not a narrow special interest.

On question remains, since the transportation department has been dissolved, and Mr. Plazerin has his duties pared by one-third, will the district cut his salary by one-third?