NAMPA, IDAHO — Nampa School District has moved on from long-time transportation partner Brown Bus Company after meeting Tuesday night where they selected "First Student" as their new transportation partner.
- Brown Bus Company (est. 1959) has bussed for Nampa School District for 64 years.
- The district says Brown Bus Company's bid was non-responsive because they did not completely fill out the bid.
- "First Student" will be taking over transportation duty for the district.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Next school year students in Nampa will be bussed to school under a new contract with a new company. I'm your neighborhood reporter, Alexander Huddleston, at Brown Bus Company, the company that was in charge for the last 64 years to ask what happens next, and how it will impact students.
"A lot of emotions. A lot of things spinning around in my head, and I know a lot of things spinning around in my employees'," said Operations Manager, Brent Carpenter.
Since 1960, the Brown Bus Company has bused thousands of Nampa School District students to and from school. However, after a meeting Tuesday night the school district chose to start the upcoming year with another company that will transport the students.
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Carpenter said, "It hurts that we won't have that opportunity with the district. It doesn't shut us down. We have 52 routes that are running and with that are some spare buses. We will still have 70 buses running and operating."
Those 70 buses are transportation for charter schools in Ada and Canyon County. But, that is 70 buses of a 185-bus fleet. Even though students will see no interruption in service, I asked Brent Carpenter what that means for the other drivers not assigned to a route.
"We don't want to lose them. So, we are gonna work hard to try and find them a place that they want to continue to work with brown bus and be a part of our family," said Carpenter.
But, why was their bid rejected? Well, Matt Sizemore with the Nampa School District says it was not about numbers.
Sizemore added, "Brown Bus’s bid was deemed non-responsive because there were two different areas that were just not filled out, including shuttle prices and fixed costs."
Having these not filled out is what Sizemore says legally disqualified the long-time partner’s bid. The bid chosen to start busing next year went to “First Student”, who the district says will be implementing a lot of new ideas along with new buses.
"A lot of great technology as well, cameras, as well as an app that the district is going to be implementing that is going to help parents know when their bus is going to be late, or if their bus is on time too and from school and different things like that," listed Sizemore.
Carpenter says that although their bid did not pass for this renewal, they are hopeful that in 5 years they can throw their hat back in the ring.
