With time running out as school bus vendors threaten to halt services for upwards of 100,000 New York City students, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos drafted a Monday letter home to families outlining alternative transportation options in case of a shutdown.
The companies have notified the state Department of Labor they could lay off 12,000 drivers and attendants if they do not receive a long-term contract extension by the end of this week. The first day of disrupted service would be Monday, Nov. 3.
“If bus service is disrupted, our top priority is to ensure that every student can continue attending school without interruption,” read the chancellor’s memo, going home in backpacks this week across the five boroughs.
“We know many of our students and families depend on yellow bus service and that even the possibility of an interruption in service causes concern,” she added. “New York City Public Schools is working diligently towards a resolution, and we hope that these plans for alternative transportation will be unnecessary.”
Aviles-Ramos said individual schools will notify families if a stoppage does occur and their child is among those affected. The public school system will also share updates on a dedicated website and its social media platforms.
The chancellor added that school transportation officials are “actively working” to arrange alternatives for affected students. All impacted families will be provided with OMNY cards — both for the student and a parent or caregiver to accompany them. For students with some disabilities, living in homeless shelters or temporary housing, or in foster care, the city plans to provide pre-paid rideshare or offer reimbursements.
The new, five-year contract extension was agreed to by the vendors and Mayor Adams’ office, the companies claim, but requires sign-off from the city’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), which is mostly composed of mayoral appointees. But in an unusual act of defiance against Adams, the panel has held off on rubber-stamping the renewal, in hopes of rebidding contracts that are better for students but do not come at the cost of employee protections for drivers and transportation staff.
“While our administration continues to work toward a resolution to avoid any service interruptions, we are taking proactive steps to ensure every student can safely get to and from school without incident,” Mayor Adams said in a statement.
Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for the bus companies, said Adams’ chief of staff and first deputy have reaffirmed the deal as recently as Friday: “The school bus companies have been in constant communication with the city and DOE [Department of Education], and we look forward to executing the 5-year deal that was approved after one year of negotiation and compromise,” he said.
It’s not clear what happens next.
Aviles-Ramos said the city’s schools had not directly received any official notice of layoffs. More than a dozen firms have already agreed to the next emergency extension, which will be voted on by the PEP next month and retroactive to the first day of the month, sources on a Friday briefing said. The city contracts with at least a few dozen vendors.
The city education panel has been approving short-term addendums since the last contract extension expired over the summer. But a lawyer for the companies previously called the emergency extensions “unfeasible and impractical” for a transportation business.
The city spends about $1.9 billion on busing each year for some 150,000 students.
