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Seattle could be missing the bus on a new bus company. seanami / GETTY

On Tuesday afternoon, Zūm, one of the 2 coach companies trying to land a fatty transportation contract with Seattle Public Schools (SPS), accused the district of desperately messing upwardly its evaluation procedure, resulting in SPS "arbitrarily and improperly" signaling its intent to accolade the contract to Beginning Educatee for the 2d time this year.

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In the company's May two bid protestation letter to the commune, Zūm attorney Daniel Suvor argued that the district's nod "ignores the fact that accepting Zūm's bid would save SPS $7 million over the course of the contract." Accounting for those savings, he argued, would have put the company 7 points alee of First Student rather than five points behind it according to the district'southward scoring rubric. He also accused the district of running a proposal process "marked by arbitrary delays, arbitrary scoring decisions, and an apparent bias towards Outset Student, despite a laundry list of safety violations and complaints confronting" the company.

Earlier this year, the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Committee found that Showtime Educatee's charter double-decker service, which takes kids on field trips and stuff, committed more 600 safety and procedure violations. "The company repeatedly failed to screen drivers for drugs and alcohol, cleared employees to bulldoze before they'd even completed an awarding for employment or a history of their driving records, provided faux information on commuter records and allowed some vehicles to continue running fifty-fifty when seats weren't deeply fastened," according to a Seattle Times analysis of the complaint. A couple months ago the company settled for "a fraction" of the fines to which it was subject.

Switching bus providers would present a huge logistical claiming for the district, and the longer it takes to make a determination, the harder it would be to brand the switch before school starts in September. To support its allegations of "delay," Zūm points to the timeline. The commune outset issued a request for proposals in October of 2021, so initially awarded the contract to First Pupil 2 months subsequently its Dec deadline. Shortly after Zūm protested that decision, in Feb the country cited First Pupil with all those prophylactic violations. The district then shut down the behest procedure while claiming the state accusations were unrelated to that determination. Only when it restarted the process in March of this twelvemonth, a new question on the application asked prospects about whatsoever recent run-ins with country or federal regulators. A week subsequently Beginning Pupil settled with state regulators, the district asked for concluding bids from both contractors, and then more than a week later announced its intent to go with Start Student.

In a May four counter-protestation letter, First Student lawyer Traeger Machetanz described Zūm's claims as "entirely without merit" and said the company's protestation amounts to "a misunderstanding of procurement guidelines and the discretion afforded SPS by the terms of the RFP."

Kickoff Pupil spokesperson Scott Gulbransen said the visitor "is committed to post-obit and respecting the process set forth by the Seattle Schools" and remains "focused and committed to serving the Seattle Public Schools and its families as nosotros take for thirty years."

Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Tim Robinson declined to comment on the double-decker contract because it "first needs to be completed and approved by the board."

Only the country'due south long list of safety violations against First Student, Zūm's list of complaints nigh the district, and the fatigued-out proposal process have raised suspicion among some parents with kids in the district.

Robert Cruickshank, an education abet who serves on the lath of Washington'south Paramount Duty, called on Seattle School Board directors to investigate the matter. "I think information technology's extremely apropos ... to come across reports that SPS has mishandled the bidding process," he said.

District 5 School Board Director Michelle Sarju declined to comment due to ongoing "legal proceedings."

Cruickshank tied this charabanc contracting effect to financial problems plaguing the district'south larger transportations services plan, which have led officials to propose a controversial change to bell times that would require fewer motorcoach drivers simply create three start times (rather than the current two) across different grades, forcing kids into classes earlier. The district has since "slowed" this proposal.

Though he doesn't know enough well-nigh Zūm as a company to form an opinion about its merits, he said "educatee safety has to be top priority, and it's really clear that First Pupil is not going to be able to get that done."

Beth Raas-Bergquist, a parent from Greenwood with a kid at Viewlands Elementary, didn't fifty-fifty know the district was considering another autobus provider, but she knows her experience with Beginning Student has been less than platonic.

In the wintertime of 2019, she said a Outset Student bus commuter dropped off her child and about 20 others in the snow in front of a nail salon most a mile away from North Seattle Boys and Girls Club, which was the bus' intended destination. Subsequently the driver allow them off, the "big kids" on the bus — 4th and 5th-graders — led the picayune troupe up to the order, whose staff was "appalled" to learn the news, Raas-Bergquist said. When she finally got ahold of Outset Student, she said a representative for the company told her she "should have known to pick up [her] kids in the snow," because the company didn't allow drivers to drive on icy roads.

"I don't know if they're meliorate or worse or what," Raas-Bergquist said, referring to Zūm, "just at present with iv years of trying to navigate Showtime Student, I'thou certainly open to trying a different visitor."

First Pupil did not respond to a request for comment on that affair.

Raas-Bergquist could be forgiven for not knowing about the beingness of another school bus company. Showtime Pupil is the largest motorbus contracting business firm in the state, and information technology has run the buses for SPS for thirty years. When the commune cutting more than 140 routes last year considering the company failed to hired plenty drivers, Fred Podesta, the district's operations officer, told The Seattle Times that SPS couldn't enforce a contract provision to make First Educatee pay for another company to fill the gaps "because there isn't anybody else."

Perhaps after seeing an opening in a market dominated by 1 visitor, tech executive Ritu Narayan founded Zūm in 2015. Last yr the company started running buses for San Francisco'due south Unified School District, serving "around three,500 students across 150 campuses." Information technology also picked up a contract running buses for special education students in Oakland, according to the San Francisco Concern Times. This year, the company will also take over a motorbus contract for Los Angeles School District, the second-largest district in the country. On its website, the company boasts "custom technology" to optimize routes and to allow parents to track students on buses.

If it makes the agenda, the school board could start word on the bus contract on May 18.

Correction: This piece originally stated that the schoolhouse board was set to decide on the contract next calendar week, but that's not right. The issue might be introduced side by side week, but board activity wouldn't take place until the post-obit meeting at the earliest.