By Mark Reynolds
At their January 2 meeting, the Marlboro School Board voted to extend the bus contract with National Express, owner of the Quality Bus Company. Marlboro Director of Business and Finance, Emerson Segara, broke out the costs for the 2024-25 school year into three categories: Regular Transportation at $3,500,737; Summer & Special Education transportation at $176,327 and transportation for Athletics & Extra-Curricular activities at $822,570 for a total of $4,449,634.
In checking the school’s records, Segara said the district is set up for 2,100 kids, which includes those going to private schools but, “in reality it is closer to 1,800 per day with an average of 4,500 miles daily.”
There are 20 regular bus routes, 5 late bus routes, 3 routes to BOCES CTE in Goshen, 17 Special Education routes and 7 private school routes. The district provides regular bus transportation to and from private schools that are within a 30 mile radius but does not provide busing for after school events or for athletic/extra curricular activities.
Segara noted that the board’s vote to extend the contract caps the increase at 2.5% or at the Consumer Price Index [CPI], whichever is lower. He provided a table of the CPI figures that show fluctuating figures from 2010 through 2024. In 2024 the CPI figure was 3.9 and in 2022 it hit a high of 6.3 and in 2015 it was -0.1.
Segara points out that, “As shown, year to year increases exceed our contract cap, providing the district with a buffer to account for transportation cost variability.”
Segara further notes that, “Under [State] Education Law, transportation contracts can be extended by the [School] Board without a formal bid as long as the increase does not exceed the CPI and no changes are made to the contract terms.”
Segara stated that the district will calculate the increase using the 2.5% figure, which comes to $112,490 that the district will pay in the 2025-26 school year. Segara said he is waiting for the May figures and expects the CPI number will be about 3.5, which confirms the district will use the lower 2.5% figure when calculating the increase.
“So we are on the winning side at 2.5 percent and during the summer we will submit this year’s expenditures end of year renewals to the state and that will become our transportation aid numbers,” he said.
Segara noted that the district is reimbursed for the transportation costs at a rate of 68.3 percent and the rest is paid for by taxpayers.
Segara said the $112K increase is not paid in one lump sum but is folded into the monthly 10 month billing cycle that starts on September 1, 2025.