Page 42 - School Planning & Management, May 2017
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BUSINESS { MANAGING K-12 EDUCATION }
Should I or Shouldn’t I? Facing the Outsourcing Decision
Sometimes it’s a more responsible use of resources to contract a service. But how do you know for sure? Here’s how to work through the process.
By Ellen Kollie
DAVID BEIN, SFO, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT for Business and chief school business official for Downers Grove Grade School District 58, in Illinois, is struggling with
his outsourced special education bus transportation service. This is because Chicago is experiencing a significant shortage of school bus drivers, which is causing challenges in staffing bus routes.
“Right now our special education transportation provider is horrible,” Bein explains. “They don’t have enough drivers. They have called us on more than one occasion to say, ‘Oh, by the way, we can’t run these three or four routes any more because we just don’t have drivers,’ and that’s after they don’t pick up students. It has been this way for all of this school year and much of last school year.”
42 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / MAY 2017
WEBSPM.COM
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DISTRICT 58’S COMMUNITY RELATIONS OFFICE
