Palmdale’s New Bus Company Was at Center of Service Dispute : Schools: An Orange County official called the company’s stranding of handicapped students ‘despicable.’ Palmdale educators were unaware of the problem before hiring the firm.

The school bus company hired by the Palmdale School District this week left hundreds of mentally handicapped youngsters stranded at home for weeks during a bitter contract dispute in Orange County in 1988, Orange County school officials said Wednesday.

A spokesman for Durham Transportation said the company could not muster enough drivers because Orange County officials refused to pay more money for the service.

But a top Orange County school official on Wednesday called Durham’s performance “despicable in nature and not very ethical.”

Officials in the Palmdale district, which decided Tuesday to award Durham a three-year, multimillion-dollar busing contract, said they knew nothing of the Orange County dispute until asked about it by a reporter.

The Palmdale officials said they planned to investigate the issue today.

In bidding for the Palmdale contract, Durham also provided Palmdale school officials with incorrect information that made it seem as though Durham still has the disputed Orange County busing contract, Palmdale school records showed.

In fact, the Orange County superintendent of schools office canceled the contract with Durham for mentally handicapped students effective in mid-1989, four years into a five-year contract. But Durham still listed that service as active in a bid document filed with Palmdale in April.

Nancy Smith, assistant superintendent for business services in the 11,800-student Palmdale district, said Palmdale officials plan to talk today with Orange County officials about their problems with Durham, the fifth largest private school bus operator in the nation.

“We had no idea of that at all,” Smith said Wednesday.

In the fourth year of its Orange County contract in mid-September 1988, Durham began failing to send enough buses for about 800 mentally handicapped students in the countywide program. That left up to half the students stranded at home for up to several weeks, angering many parents.

Orange County school officials hastily arranged with other companies to supplement Durham’s buses, a makeshift situation that continued until mid-1989 when the county replaced Durham with another bus company. Durham officials said they agreed with the county to terminate the contract early.

“To hold the children as hostages or victims in that situation was despicable,” Lynn Hartline, Orange County’s deputy superintendent of schools, said. She blamed Durham for abandoning the children without adequate notice when the company found another, more lucrative contract.

But Durham Senior Vice President John Edney said the company had warned the county for months that more money was needed, but the county would not provide it. “I think we behaved in a moral and ethical manner and I have no hesitation about saying that,” Edney said.

According to Edney, such increased payments are typical, although the company’s contract did not require Orange County officials to increase their payments each year to cover Durham’s higher operating costs. At the time, Orange County officials said they could not afford Durham’s demands.

Edney called the episode an isolated and unfortunate situation, saying Durham has a good reputation in the busing industry. And he pointed out that Orange County officials, despite the dispute, have continued to use Durham on a separate but smaller contract to bus job training students.

In its Palmdale bid documents, Durham said it had been providing Orange County schools officials with 89 buses--the number used in the now-canceled contract--from mid-1985 until the present. Durham’s remaining contract with the county uses only about 20 buses.