Late last month, School District 57 announced their first concrete plan to address the bus shortages that have been plaguing parents and students since the fall.
Diversified, the bus provider whose contract the district decided to not renew in the summer, is now coming back to fill the holes left by First Student, the provider that just started this year.
Sam Dean is the CEO of Diversified, who spoke with My PG Now regarding a return to the district after being told “no thanks” by them just months ago.
“We were made aware of the change at the time of contract award before the end of 2021/2022 school year, approximately March 2022,” Dean said.
“Absolutely we would have liked to continue working with the district and its parents and students.”
The contract with the SD57 provided Dean’s company with 70% of their business before being let go.
He said Diversified has been “operating our business as usual and continue to grow our business in a scalable and efficient way,” but also said that they were also quick to work on accepting the invitation back.
The district approached Diversified “just recently,” after four months of fractured and inconsistent bussing.
The two contractors will work in harmony until the end of 2024.
This begs the question, what will happen afterwards – will they continue to co-exist, or will SD57 chose a champion and return to a one-contractor model?
Not wanting to lose the contract a second time, Dean said “we hope that our level of commitment to safety and service levels are as they have been or better, serving the community in the hopes that further work and runs will be awarded in the long term.”
He could not speak to the dealings with SD57 that lead up to them deciding to move forward with another contractor in the summer, Dean became General Manager soon after that all took place.
Currently, he says dealings with the district have all been “easy to deal with, and [they are] open to any suggestions for corrections and scheduling we have put forward.”
Diversified is set to begin bussing early this month, parents, students, and the district alike all hope this will mark the end of the bussing headaches.