Firm Gets Deadline to Resolve School Bus Shortage

Orange County’s superintendent of schools has given a bus company until Wednesday to resolve a weeklong bus shortage or another firm will be selected to provide daily transportation for 800 handicapped students.

Supt. Robert Peterson said Monday that if Durham Transportation Inc. does not have a plan by Wednesday, the county Department of Education will invoke emergency arrangements in the contract to seek another bus company.

Larry Durham, owner of the company, said he sees no solution, however, until the county offers more money--something Peterson said is not possible.

At issue is the busing of about 800 handicapped children to 21 special schools operated by the county Department of Education. Hundreds of those children have faced uncertain bus transportation since Sept. 12, when the contractor said low pay has created a driver shortage.

Many parents had to drive their handicapped children to the schools last week and again on Monday when buses failed to appear. More bus shortages are expected today.

Peterson said the county Department of Education has already gone as far as it can by giving Durham a 4.34% cost-of-living increase for the current year. “That amounts to $108,000, and we paid that even though the state gave us no money for a cost-of-living increase for transportation costs.”

A state watchdog agency also announced a Wednesday deadline for resolving the bus shortage. The agency--Developmental Disabilities Board, Area XI--said it will file a federal civil rights complaint against the county Department of Education if the bus shortage has not been ended by then. Claire Heaney of Tustin, chairwoman of the Orange County arm of the watchdog agency, said in a letter to Peterson that the transportation problem violates the rights of the handicapped students under state and federal laws.

Heaney added in the letter: “Thus, while we appreciate and sympathize with the Orange County Department of Education’s monumental dilemma, resolution must be immediate or we shall find ourselves in the position of being required to file a letter of non-compliance with state and federal authorities on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1988.” Rhys Burchill, executive director of the watchdog agency, said a letter of non-compliance is in effect a complaint that civil rights are being violated.

Peterson said he does not see the agency’s pledge as a threat. “If it will help light a fire under the contractor, we are very pleased,” he said.

The superintendent said he thinks Durham Transportation is reneging on a valid contract.

“Legally, we can’t change the contract with Mr. Durham,” Peterson said. “We’ve already granted him $108,000 that the contract says the department may do, but we cannot give him any more additional money.

“And so we have asked Mr. Durham to present his plan by Wednesday. If Mr. Durham can’t comply with the contract by then, we will invoke the emergency procedures (in the contract) and get another bus company.”

If this occurs, Peterson said, the department will seek payment from a bonding company by contending that Durham did not comply with the contract.

Peterson said it may only be necessary to get a supplementary bus company to help Durham fulfill part of the contract. But there is also the possibility that the county will have to completely replace Durham by seeking, through bids, a new contract. Peterson said time restraints would delay that alternative until early in 1989.

Durham on Monday reiterated his claim that the county Department of Education has “been in bad faith” in dealing with the transportation company. He said the contract specifically calls for Durham to be reimbursed for unusual costs, but the county department has refused to help the company with increased expenses, such as tripled insurance costs since 1985. The company is in the fourth year of a five-year contract that began in 1985.

Durham also said the county did not provide full cost-of-living increases for the company in the past two years.

Peterson agreed that the department did not provide cost-of-living increases as high as were possible under the contract. But Peterson said that the contract makes such increases permissive, not mandatory. He noted that the department has not received any state funds for increased transportation costs for the past three years.

Peterson said attendance “was about normal” Monday in the county schools for the handicapped. Last week, however, absenteeism in the schools ranged from a high of 48% on Sept. 12, the first day of the shortage, to a low of 10% on Friday, county officials said.