BOISE, Idaho — After 64 years of contracting with Brown Bus Company to take children to and from school, the Nampa School District (NSD) officially switched companies.
On Tuesday, June 25, NSD held a meeting about switching companies and choosing a bid from First Student Buses. However, despite opposition from the Brown Bus Company, the board unanimously chose to continue with First Student Buses, officially ending their 64-year relationship.
'This is a challenging decision mostly because there is a deep relationship in the community with the Brown Bus company and The Nampa School District. However, our hands are kind of tied by the legal specification of the legal process," said Stephanie Binns on the NSD Board of Trustees.
As previously reported, on June 11, the board voted to end its contract with the Brown Bus Company and award First Student Buses a new transportation contract starting in the 2024-2025 school year.
Brown Bus Company pushed back on the board's decision, pointing to its lower bid than First Student Buses and asking the district to reverse its decision.
On Tuesday, the board heard from Brown Bus Co. and First Student before discussing details with the administration.
"We're disappointed in the board meeting last week," Brent Carpenter, operations manager, told KTVB Friday.
Brown Bus Co. believes they filled out bid paperwork correctly - despite the school district feeling the opposite.
"We, we felt like the items that they identified as being nonresponsive, were inaccurate," Carpenter said.
The morning of the bid meeting they gave the board further clarifications about the bid prices, thinking they gave the school district the clarification needed, Carpenter said.
"We were the lowest bidder, it was obvious by the pricing," he said.
The Brown Bus Company's bid came in just over $6.5 million. The bid from First Student was just over $7 million. The school district deemed the brown bus bid unresponsive, and not choose-able.
Brown Bus Co. is the only bus company in Nampa. It has drivers and a facility ready for the first day of school. However, if the school district sticks with its decision to use First Student, Carpenter says over 100 buses and drivers will be without jobs.
"We're obviously looking for a reversal... and what it's going to take to get that I believe is, they're going to have to look at it and say we were responsive," Carpenter said. "If we can get the' we were responsive', then we can get to we are also the lowest responsive bidder. And so that's ultimately the goal. We want to be here on day one of the Nampa School Districts 24-25. school year."
On Tuesday, the Brown Bus Co. drivers filed the audience of the meeting board room. Carpenter said that other drivers had to sit in the overflow room.
The Brown Bus Co. drivers all showed up wearing matching shirts that said, "I choose Brown Bus."
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