Framingham and its understaffed school bus company may be parting ways. What to know

FRAMINGHAM — NRT Bus Inc., which is contracted to transport students to and from Framingham Public Schools, has requested to terminate its contract with the city.

And in response, Framingham officials have taken steps to secure a new vendor.

Should a split happen between the city and the transportation provider, it would end what's been a tumultuous relationship.

In a Dec. 19 letter to NRT, Framingham City Solicitor Kathryn Fallon issued a notice of default, writing that the city would exercise its right to secure completion of services from another vendor.

"In response to the city's attempt to mitigate the harm caused by NRT's default and underperformance, NRT sent a letter, dated November 28, 2023, seeking to amend the agreement by terminating it," Fallon's letter states.

Framingham officials frustrated with lack of drivers

The letter details several frustrations the school district has had with NRT, including the transportation provider's failure to provide a written plan on how it planned to recruit more bus drivers. The solicitor's letter also notes that NRT had sent a letter in November requesting to terminate its existing contract with the city.

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The current contract the city has with NRT is scheduled to run through the 2025-26 school year. Mayor Charlie Sisitsky told the Daily News that because Framingham has served the breach letter, his impression is that NRT is seeking to wash its hands of the city.

"We’ve served NRT with a breach letter, and that has implications for them bidding in other communities in the future," Sisitsky said. "That letter is on file, and they are very unhappy about that, but they haven’t been able to do anything about getting us more drivers. So at this point, I think they’ve made the business decision that they no longer want to be our vendor, and they are looking for ways to get out of that contract."

NRT did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily News.

Shortage of drivers has been a consistent problem

The key issue between Framingham Public Schools and NRT is that not enough bus drivers have been provided to transport all students who require bus transportation. The city is contracted to have 77 buses each day, but throughout the most recent school year, FPS has only averaged about 57 buses daily. That essentially leaves 20 busloads of students without a reliable way to get to and from school.

“The hardest part of the job is talking to parents who just want to be able to get their child to school, and telling them that we can’t provide that,” Director of Finance and Operations Lincoln Lynch said during an Oct. 4 School Committee meeting.

Another headache for the school district occurred last spring, when a labor dispute between NRT and the Teamsters union that represented Framingham drivers nearly resulted in a strike. The strike was narrowly avoided after Framingham agreed to pay more to NRT to increase driver salaries.

Despite the pay boost, NRT has been unsuccessful in providing new drivers to Framingham, something Sisitsky said was incredibly disappointing and has led to the city issuing the breach notice.

"We avoided the strike last spring, and part of the agreement at the time was that if NRT was able to pay the drivers more money, they would be able to fill vacancies," the mayor said. "As a result, they agreed to let us cancel their contract and rebid it, they bid on a new set of specs and my understanding is they were going to bid high enough so that they could pay the drivers more. To a certain extent that happened, but in my opinion they didn’t bid high enough to be able to offer the drivers enough money in order to make that difference in being able to attract new drivers. They aren’t making any progress."

Framingham puts out request for new vendor

Framingham is seeking a new vendor to take over if its contract with NRT gets terminated. The city put out a request on Dec. 29, looking for a vendor that can take on Framingham's busing responsibilities from the 2024-25 school year, through July 2027.

Bidders have until Jan. 31 to submit a request to the city. If no bids are submitted, the city can explore additional options, including taking busing back in-house, a proposal that was presented by School Committee member Adam Freudberg during an October School Committee meeting.

Freudberg said that Framingham hasn't experienced the cost savings that were originally anticipated by officials back in 2011, particularly with the recent increase in spending the city has had to make since the new contract was signed to avoid the strike. Freudberg also said that other communities, most notably Worcester, have shown to be superior to attracting drivers than working with a contracted vendor.

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"The in-house, education department run model in other communities who have made the change is trending well as a different way to innovate and tackle a national problem. In-house solutions have led to more vacancies filled, more on time routes, more accountability, and improved morale among drivers," Freudberg told the Daily News. "Framingham has managed in-house before and can do it again. Framingham can step up and show our kids we can innovate and solve problems for them. "

The contract with NRT could only be legally terminated with the approval of both sides, with Sisitsky ultimately having to sign off on the deal.

"We would have to agree, technically the Mayor could do it but I definitely couldn’t do it without city council or school committee first discussing it," Sisitsky said.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Framingham, school bus company may part ways; when it might happen