Moreno Valley Unified School District School Bus Contracts

MVUSD is operating 20-22 home-to-school bus routes with Laidlaw without a formal written contract signed by both parties. Instead, they are using a bid proposal document received from Laidlaw as an operational contractual agreement, which is outside the scope of the work to be performed exposing each party to substantial risk, litigation and unlimited cost. This agreement does not meet the requirements of California Public Contracts Codes (CPSS) §20111, §20112 and Moreno Valley Administrative Regulation (AR) §3310. 1

As of the end of January 2007, Laidlaw has been paid over $700,000 for home-to-school bus service with MVUSD without a contract. MVUSD is non-compliant with state code and its own policy for not advertising for competitive bidding for home-to- school bus service. State code requires advertising for contracts over $65,000 for school year 2006 and $69,000 for 2007, and awarding the contract to the lowest qualified bidder, in accordance with CPPC §20112 and MVUSD Business Policy (BP) §3311.

MVUSD is not planning to follow the Education Code, as it pertains to contract extension. The code only allows a contract to be extended for a total period of five years. Special provision #3 of MVUSD bid proposal document for charter bus service of 2004 states their agreement ends on June 30, 2005. The time frame of the bid proposal includes an option to extend for up to two additional years; therefore, the duration of the service will end not later than June 30, 2007. MVUSD plans to extend the bid proposal document an additional five years beginning July 1, 2007. This extension will exceed the five-year limitation, in accordance with California Education Code (CEC) §17596.

Laidlaw was the low bidder for 84 passenger vehicles in the bid proposal document of 2004. The bid proposal document did not include 22-passenger vehicles, however, MVUSD is using eleven (11) Laidlaw 22-passenger vehicles. Therefore, the district is not in compliance with state code and district policy, CPPC §20111, §20112 and AR §3310.

In 2006, MVUSD’s governing board (school board) approved the purchase of 10 buses at $150,000 each, without a comprehensive plan, to replace Laidlaw as the bus service provider. As of January 2007, MVUSD has failed to hire a sufficient number of qualified drivers for the new buses; therefore, the governing board approved making this $1.5 million expenditure while also paying for student transportation by Laidlaw. 2