Pleasant Valley School Board voted 5-4 Monday to renew a service contract with busing provider First Student. The special meeting was held on the Zoom platform.

The contract isn’t finalized. The district’s solicitor Mark Fitzgerald has to give the contract a final review and go back to First Student on any terms that the directors want to negotiate. Once the terms are acceptable on both sides, then the directors will vote on the final contract.

The board had voted down the contract proposal in late May and again on June 10 because of the costs, which made the five-year length of the contract unpalatable. The contract length became a sticking point that resulted in the split vote.

Several directors didn’t want to get locked into the five-year contract and suggested a three-year contract.

At a previous meeting, school board treasurer Laura Jecker suggested extending the current contract for one year, so they could have more time to negotiate the next contract.

Greg Gallagher, the area general manager for First Student, wasn’t present at Monday’s meeting, but declined a different contract length at the regular meeting on June 10. He said that the company has given the school district minimal cost increases over the last 12 years, and needs to get caught up with their costs in order to stay profitable.

“Through the years, we’ve given very minimal increases. We are at the point now that we need to, our costs have risen just as your costs have risen, but we need to get our contract back on line. We are a for-profit company,” he said.

First Student’s proposed service contract has a 10% increase in costs in the first and second year of the contract, and smaller increases for the remaining three years.

The costs were:

• 2021-2022 - $7,431,845;

• 2022-2023 - $8,238,219;

• 2023-2024 - $8,592,476;

• 2024-2025 - $8,962,022;

• 2025-2026 - $9,347,379.

“I still want a three-year contract,” Jecker said on Monday. ”This board deserves a three-year contract.”

The second issue is the number of routes.

First Student’s quote is based on 91 routes, which is the number of routes in their current contract. The school board directors would like to decrease the number of routes in order to save money.

School board director Susan Kresge said that a route analysis in November showed areas where route could be cut. She asked William Gasper, the director of operations for Pleasant Valley, why this analysis wasn’t used and the number of routes reduced in this next round of contracts.

Gasper said he didn’t know, because he was not involved in the initial talks with First Student.

Gallagher told the board on June 10 that due to his company’s fixed costs, the district wouldn’t see a reduction in costs by reducing the number of routes.

At that meeting, Gasper said the current contract with First Student allows for a 5% reduction in routes per year. He said on Monday that he checked the district’s current contract and it is actually 5% over the length of the contract, not per year. He wanted to clarify that for the board.

School board President Donna Yozwiak said she would like to see a reduction in the number of buses going back and forth to Monroe Career and Technical Institute. She said four buses go back and forth twice a day.

“That’s significant at 180 days per year,” she said.

In an effort to give the school board more options, director Todd Kresge suggested that the district hire another busing provider for any routes over what they agree to with First Student. He wanted a statement added to the record.

“We will begin the process of looking for a second student transportation service to help the district look for efficiencies and provide additional route vehicles, if needed, and be the district’s full-service provider beginning with the 2026-2027 school year,” he said.

The directors voting in favor of entering into a service contract with First Student were Len Peeters, Sue Kresge, Dan Wunder, Donna Yozwiak and Teresa Greggo. Those voting no were Laura Jecker, Delbert Zacharias, Todd Kresge and Norman Burger.