By Alan Van Ormer
Tribune editor

Dell Rapids and Dell Rapids St. Mary students will be riding on the same buses when school starts this fall, but will be under different management.
The Dell Rapids Board of Education approved a contract busing agreement with Midstates School Bus, Inc. in Wayne, Neb. In addition, the board members unanimously voted to declare all buses and associated equipment surplus.
Dennis Jensen, vice president of Midstates School Bus, Inc., said the contract states that the company will hire existing staff and will maintain the current buses that are owned by the school.
“This allows us as a school board and administration to work on education and move transportation to the experts,” Board member Steve Munk said.
School Board President Alan Blankenfeld said that people who have kids currently riding the bus wouldn’t notice any difference.
Mike Wolles, who was invited to view the busing agreement, said St. Mary’s is happy that the public school is continuing with basically the same service that the students have always been getting.
In 2010, the school district had budgeted an estimated $446,000 for transportation needs out of the general fund. The estimated cost that the school district will pay Midstates School Bus, Inc. in 2010 for transportation would be $498,000, but an estimated $196,000 will come back to the school district from the purchase of 10 school buses. The majority of the transportation cost will come out of the general fund, except for an estimated $70,000 that will come from the special education fund.
The school board felt that moving to contract busing added several benefits including:
• having a continuously updated fleet, which includes no buses older than 12 years old;
• adding one more employee, which would be a co-manager. There will now be 15 employees;
• more insurance coverage than the school district can provide. The school district policy is $2 million and the new policy is $5 million;
• experts that can develop route efficiency. The largest bus route is 45 miles. The school board expects that experts can find a way to cut down the riding time of students; and
• frees up capital outlay fund for other school district projects. Every other year the school district places $80,000 into the capital outlay fund to purchase buses. This would allow the school district to use those funds for other needs.
Currently, the school district handles busing needs for students attending Dell Rapids and Dell Rapids St. Mary. There are six routes and three other buses used for activities and when needed.
The administration started looking at contract busing three years ago by school board request. It was dropped because school board determined there wasn’t that much of a difference to changed over to contract bus. Within the last six months, the school board directed the administration to look to see if there were more contracted bus companies available. In addition, there are more federal guidelines coming down that could be done by a paid contracted service.
There were three busing companies, including one from South Dakota that contacted the school district about contract busing. The Dell Rapids Board of Education chose to negotiate with Midstates because the costs were lower and the purchasing of the school buses was higher than the other two.